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AMERICA OR ROME 
CHRIST OR THE POPE 



JOHN L. BRANDT 

h 

AUTHOR OF 

"TURNING POINTS IN LJFE," " MARRIAGE AND 

THE HOME," "THE FALSE AND 

THE TRUE," "THE LORD'S 

SUPPER," ETC. 



INTRODUCTORY 

BY 

W. J. H. TRAYNOR AND J. G. WHITE 



Mustratcb 




TOLEDO, OHIO 

THE LOYAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1895 






1^ 




Copyright, 1895, 

BY 

N. E. BRANDT. 



(All rights reserved.) 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Preface- --------------- 4 

Introductory: The Political Aspect of Romanism- _ 12 

Introductory: The Religious Aspect of Romanism- - - 15 

The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope- ______ 17 

The Auricular Confession- ___'____•___ 48 

The Celibacy of the Priesthood- _______ 76 

Transubstantiation and the Mass- _______ 104 

Purgatory and Indulgences- _________ 185 

Images, Saints, Angels and Virgin Mary ."_._.__ 168 

Romanism and the Bible- ______-_. 208 

Romanism and Protestantism- _.-_.___ 240 

How Rome Controls the Secular Press _____ 275 

How Rome Attacks our Public Schools- - - _ _ 311 

Satolli and his Mission- _*______-_ ._ 357 

What Great Men have said about Romanism- _ .. _ 377 

How to Conquer the Enemy- --____ .__ 411 

Preludes and Addresses — 

Growth of Romanism in the United States- _ _ _ 432 

Convent Life Illustrated- _ _ _ _ . _ . '. _ 442 

Who Assassinated Lincoln- _______ - 456 

Heretics and Martyrs. -------- _ 461 

Text-Books Used in Parochial Schools- - - - 476 

Appendix — 

Papal Infallibility- ___________ 486 

Romanism Incompatible with Liberty- _ _ _ _ 487 

The Influence of the Confessional on the Nations- 489 

Transubstantiation a Species of Cannibalism- _ 493 

Worship of the Host __-_-__-_- 494 

Extreme Unction. ___________ 495 

Devotion of the Scapular- ________ 496 

Miracles Performed by the Blessed Virgin- - . _ 496 

Is Rome Tolerant?- _ _________ 497 

Illiteracy in Romish and Protestant Countries- - 499 

Accused of Impersonating a Priest- _____ 501 

Third Plenary Council on Parish Schools- - - - 507 

Why Parish Schools Should be Abolished- _ _ _ 511 

Rome's Secret Societies- _________ 514 

The Bishop's Oath- _______ _ _ 515 

Index- _ - - _ _______--- 516 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



These illustrations were made from life models, special 
designs, steel plate engravings and fine paintings. 

Page. 
The Author. ________ . _ _ Frontispiece 

United States Capitol- -.____'__._.___ viii. 

St.'Peter's- __--__-_-----__ 1 

Christ- _-___-_-__-_-___ 2 

Pope Leo XIII- _'___'__._._____._. 3 

White House _____________ 10 

Vatican- __._____--____.__ 11 

Kissing the Pope's Toe- ________■_._ 31 

The Confessional- _-___.'______ 55 

After the Confession- ___________ 59 

On the Way to the Confessional- _______ 75 

The Minister's Happy |Home- _ _ _ _ _ _ 91 

The Priest's Home. ___-__-_---_ 93 

Withholding the Cup from the Laity- _ _ _ _ _ 125 

Result of Withholding Cup from the Laity- _ _ _ _ 129 

Scene in Purgatory- _'_-'__- . _ _ _ 145 

Scene in Purgatory- _ _ _ _ _ . 147 

Nearly Out of Purgatory- __________ 149 

Image Worship _ ___________ 197 

Image of Madonna and Child _ _ _____ 201 

The Proscribed Books ____________ 219 

The Burning of Bibles - _________ 223 

Teaching the Catechism- __________ 251 

Who Shall Educate the Child? . _ .'•___"_- 255 

The Jesuit and the Press- ____- .____ 277 

The Bee and the Jug- ____._.___ 299 

Sitting Down on the Press- - .______._ 303 

Uncle Sam and the Public School - ------- 318 



List of Illustrations. vii 

Page. 

The Priest and the Parish School ______ .. 3l9 

Satolli- - .__.___. . _ _ _ 353 

The Public School Building- --------- 373 

Flag- . .. - _ - - - 375 

Gladstone - ". . _ .•'_.. 379 

Garfield- - - - - - - - - -, 382 

Bismarck- _,-•__•_._._._.-.__- 385 

Grant- - - _ _ . _ _ _ . _ . _ _ 388 

White- _---_-_-. - - 400 

Enticing to the Convent. - _______ 441 

Experience in Convent- - __.._____-._ 443 

Scene in Convent ------ ._-_ 445 

Taking the Veil- - ___________ 447 

Home and Mother Lost- ________ .. _ 449 

Doing Penance- _.________-_.. 451 

Escaping from the Convent- ..______ 453 

Edith O'Gorman- - - _ ________ 455 

Lincoln- _ _ _ _ _ . . _______ 457 

Father Chiniquy. _ _ _ ._._....___'__ 459 

Wycliffe- ___..__ _ _ _ _ _ _ 462 

Oldcastle.. _______________ 463 

Huss_ -__-'__-____---._ 465 

Luther- ______________ 466 

Ridley- - _ . _ _ _________ 467 

Latimer- _ _____________ 468 

Cranmer- _. _ .________. __ 470 

Knox- __.__. __________ 471 

Coligny. ______ _____ . 474 

Martyrs' Memorial _____ _______ 475 




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AMERICA ok 




ROME. 




CHRIST or 




THE POPE. Leo XIII. 



PREFACE. 



The United States is Rome's favorite missionary 
field. The extent of our territory, the fertility of 
our soil, and the freedom of our institutions, offer 
such strong- inducements that our country has been 
flooded with hordes of foreigners, many of whom 
are uneducated Roman Catholics, and who, from 
infancy, have yielded implicit obedience to the 
Pope. The Jesuits have been expelled from nearly 
every country in Europe, and they are now turn- 
ing - their eyes to the western hemisphere, and are 
exerting - might and main to take possession of the 
United States, as the following - bold declarations 
will testify. 

At the Centenary Celebration of the Catholic 
Church in the United States, Archbishop Ireland 
declared: "The great work, which in God's provi- 
dence the Catholics in the United States are called 
to do within the coming - century, is, to make 
America Catholic, and to solve for the Church 
Universal the all-absorbing - problem with which 
the ag-e confronts her." 

At the Baltimore Catholic Congress, Henry F. 
Brownson, LL.D., said: "The American system 
is also anti-Protestant, and must either reject 
Protestantism, or be overthrown by it." 

(4) 



Preface. 5 

At the dedication of the Roman Catholic Uni- 
versity at Washing-ton, Father Fidelis asserted: 
''Either the Catholic Church is God's agency set 
in operation and maintained by Him for the salva- 
tion of mankind, or else there is no hope from God. 
. Protestantism has had its day, and is pass- 
ing", as all human systems of philosophy or religion 
must surel} T pass." 

W. F. Markoe, Secretary of the Catholic Truth 
Society, said, at the World's Columbian Catholic 
Congress: "The American State recognizes only 
the Catholic relig-ion. ... A nation whose 
mottoes are 'In God we trust' and 'E pluribus 
unum,' must soon recognize the necessity of unity 
in relig-ion, and when that day comes Catholicity 
will dawn like a new revelation on the American 
mind." 

Says Pope Leo XIII., in his encyclical of Janu- 
ary 29, 1895: "The church would bring- forth more 
abundant fruits, if, in addition to liberty, she 
enjoyed the favor of the laws and the patronag-e of 
public authority." 

In these bold declarations and avowed intentions, 
Rome is either rig-ht or wrong-. As Cardinal Man- 
ning- has put it: " The Catholic Church is either 
the masterpiece of Satan, or the king-dom of the 
Son of God." Or to use the words of Cardinal 
Newman: "Either the Church of Rome is the 
house of God, or the house of Satan ; there is no 
middle ground between them." If the Church of 
Rome is the Church of God, we ought to know it. 
If the Pope is infallible, we ought to know it. If 



6 Preface. 

Rome's presence in our country and the objects she 
has determined to accomplish are for the hig-hest 
g"ood, the sooner we are convinced of this, the bet- 
ter. On the other hand, if the Church of Rome is 
the house of Satan, if the Pope is the Antichrist, 
if her doctrines are the commandments of men, if 
she is the enemy of our liberties, then our people 
ought to know it. It is the purpose of this book 
to assist in settling - these questions, and to furnish 
knowledge that will awaken sympathy and prepare 
for wise action. I have quoted, at great leng-th, 
from Rome's hig-hest authorities on the various sub- 
jects discussed ; for out of her own mouth she must 
stand condemned or acquitted, and from her own 
history she must stand approved or disapproved. 

There are those who may not see the need of 
another book upon this subject ; I would ask such 
to reserve their judg-ment until they have carefully 
studied the question; until they have read the encyc- 
licals, decrees, catechisms, theologies, and author- 
itative utterances of this hierarchy ; until they 
have read an account of some of Rome's dogmas, 
practices and intrigues as depicted by those who 
have made the subject a lifelong- study. Our coun- 
try is a paradise for Rome. She has, without being- 
disputed, introduced into our beautiful and fair 
land, many dog-mas, founded upon pretended 
visions and fabulous tales, more fit for pag-an dark- 
ness than for evang-elical lig-ht ; she has burdened 
millions of our people with masses, auricular con- 
fessions, priestly celibacy, and fears of purg-atory ; 
she has attacked our public schools ; she has 



Preface. 7 

denounced our Bible ; she has favored the union of 
church and state ; she has thrust her hand into our 
treasury ; she has monopolized the funds donated 
to the religious bodies for Indian education ; she 
controls our telegraphic system ; she censures and 
subsidizes the public press ; she manipulates many 
of our political conventions ; she rules many of our 
large cities ; she has put eighty men, out of every 
hundred, at work in the public department at 
Washington ; she has put officers in charge of our 
army and navy; she has put judges upon the bench: 
she has muzzled the mouths of man}' of our ablest 
statesmen, editors and ministers ; she has plotted 
to destroy our Government ; she has made her sub- 
jects swear allegiance to a foreign power, and Arch- 
bishop Ireland says: "She has the power to speak; 
she has an organization by which her laws may be 
enforced. . . . She is the sole living and 
enduring Christian authority','' 

These things being true, is it not time to watch 
this cunning" enemy? Is it not time to arouse sleepy 
Protestants ? Is it not time to call a halt ? Have 
we not had enough bloodshed, Tammany rings, 
anarchism and Jesuitism ? The preservation of 
American liberties is no small consideration, for 
without these liberties, an American is without a 
home. 

At the very outset I desire to state that there are 
many good Catholic men and women identified with 
the Roman Catholic Church, but there is a broad 
line of distinction between the unsuspecting confi- 
dence of the laity and the deliberate scheming of 



8 Preface. 

the Roman Catholic priesthood. There is, also, 
credit due to Rome for the preservation of some 
learning- during- the dark ages of the world's his- 
tory ; but the claim that she has done some good, 
does not prevent us from seeing the evils that have 
followed in her footsteps. 

In this discussion, we have no denunciation to 
hurl ag*ainst any individual. We shall discuss 
Romanism as it is. We shall discuss it as a system. 
We shall discuss its doctrines, principles, spirit and 
practices. 

I have written the truth, and shall abide the con- 
sequences. For speaking the truth about Rome in 
the pulpit, I have been threatened, slandered, 
cursed, persecuted, lied about, stoned, wa}^laid and 
thrice struck. Rome's subjects have made united 
efforts to close my mouth : by watching those who 
attended the meetings I conducted, ridiculing them 
and threatening to boycott them in business ; by 
creating disturbance while I was speaking — openly 
calling me a liar; by circulating false reports about 
what I said ; by breaking into my house, evidently 
after my books upon the subject of Romanism ; by 
abusing and beating my children ; by endeavoring- 
to prejudice my own people and other Protestant 
citizens against me ; by continually reviling me 
through the columns of the daily press, edited and 
controlled by papists. 

Most of the matter in these pag-es was delivered 
in a series of lectures and preludes in the National 
Union Auditorium, Toledo, Ohio, at which time I 
was earnestly requested by many friends to have 



Preface. 9 

the lectures published, and I now present them, with 
other matter, in book form, for wider circulation. 
If this labor of love shall assist in drawing- any 
Romanist out of the pit into which he has fallen, if 
it will aid in arousing- indifferent Protestants to 
their duty, if it will encourage patriotic citizens in 
their work, if it will contribute one iota to the 
preservation of our liberties, if it will make our 
citizens more loyal to America and more devoted 
to Christ, the author will be amply repaid for his 
effort. 

JNO. L. BRANDT. 

Toledo, Ohio, Feb. 12th, 1895. 




THE PRESIDENT'S MANSION or 




THE POPE'S PALACE. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The perpetuity of a nation depends as much upon 
the vigilance of its constituents as upon the intelli- 
gence of its government. When the eye of the 
people becomes unwatchful, the public servant be- 
comes selfish and negligent, less scrupulous and 
less patriotic. The election of loyal men to office 
is regulated by the interest displayed by the more 
honorable and intelligent elements of the voting 
population. In the life of every nation there comes 
a crisis when the public mind — from over-confi- 
dence in the immutability and perfection of its con- 
stitutional principles — is drawn away from matters 
of national import into personal and, frequently, 
selfish channels, leaving the field of politics open 
to those who serve no master but their own ambi- 
tion, which entirely usurps that grand spirit of 
disinterested patriotism that animated every 
thought and action of the founders of a govern- 
ment erected upon the broad platform of liberty 
and equality. 

Such conditions constitute a crisis in the affairs 
of all nations, a crisis which menaces our magnif- 
icent Republic at the present hour. Our citizens, 
bent upon individual gain, have too lightly held 
the sacrifices of their ancestors — too lightly es- 
teemed the birthright handed down to them by 
heroes who paid for it with their lives and fortunes. 
Like prodigals, they have wasted the substance of 
their liberties by relaxing that vigilance which 

(12) 



Introductory. 13 

their forefathers exercised over the stewards of the 
nation. It is not too much to assert that for every 
intelligent voter who neglects his duties at the 
polls and the caucus (the latter the most important 
of the two) an additional nail is driven into the 
coffin of liberty — a principle of our Constitution 
prostituted. 

Not only have dishonorable legislators perverted 
the spirit of our nation to their own selfish ends, but 
the} 7 have so weakened the citadel of our liberties 
as to render it easy for the avowed enemies of 
the Republic, to establish themselves in our midst 
to the undoing of our institutions. 

The worst and deadliest of these is the papal 
hierarchy — the opponent of every principle of liber- 
ty, free thought, and individuality. Those who tam- 
pered with the gates of the Constitution, that they 
might intrude upon the inheritance of the people, 
admitted at the same time the enemy most to be 
feared in a free country, the despotism of a self- 
asserted hierarchy, whose canons and decrees have 
made war upon liberty for fifteen centuries, and now, 
despite its transparent friendship, seeks but to dis- 
member the Republic that it may build upon the ruins 
thereof its own monstrous theocracy. This despo- 
tism possesses a following of 230,000,000 subjects, 
of which more than 10,000,000 are members of our 
community. Unprincipled legislators and public 
officers, eager for place and emolument, have sac- 
rificed their manhood, the liberties of the country, 
and the rights of its people to secure the unified 
vote of this section of our citizens. The alarming 
results of this disloyal sacrifice have made them- 
selves apparent within the last thirty years by the 
increase of special legislation in favor of papal in- 
stitutions, and the filling of the national, state and 
municipal appointive offices with the subjects of the 
papacy so largely in excess of their fair proportion. 
If Americans had been as vigilant and jealous 



14 Introductory. 

of their blood-bought liberties as papists have 
been watchful over the interests of their Italian 
master, such results would have been impossible. 
When from two, to three millions of voters, in any 
country, segregate and cast their votes wholly or in 
part by the direction of a foreign priest whose 
mandates are at war with the constitution of the 
nation where such votes are cast, they constitute a 
danger which, if perpetuated, cannot fail to wreck 
the most powerful government and country in the 
world. Of the legislation enacted under past and 
present administrations at the expense of the peo- 
ple and in the interests of the papacy, the Indian 
schools appropriations; the exemptions of vast tracts 
of real estate under the head of ik church property"; 
the special privileges accorded to Houses of Good 
Shepherd, and other papal institutions of a so- 
called reformatory and charitable nature, are but 
incidents which go to show the immense amount 
of benefit heaped upon this particular body in return 
for the votes of its enfranchised elements, in oppo- 
sition to the Constitution, which declares all men 
equal under its protecting aegis and entitled to equal 
privileges, yet withal denounces all sectarian or 
pro-sectarian legislation whatsoever. 

The papacyin Spain, towards the end of the sev- 
enteenth century, held billions upon billions of dol- 
lars' worth of property, tax-free, a system that has 
resulted in the bankrupting of that nation. Such a 
system applied anywhere to any special sect or 
body cannot but ultimately obtain the same results. 
That other elements of a secular nature have gone 
behind the spirit of the Constitution to secure 
special privileges, while it intensifies the assertion 
that our legislators have been and are wantonly 
corrupt and the people disgracefully neglectful, is 
an evil so insignificant in proportion to the major 
evil of hierarchical usurpation which has planted 
its foot upon the neck of the Republic, that it 



Introductory. 15 

sinks into comparative insignificance. Let us 
rid ourselves of the influence of the papacy in 
politics ; let us teach our papist fellow citizens the 
dangers of their dual allegiance, and that undivided 
citizenship is as much their safeguard as ours, and 
the minor evils will sink beneath the weight of 
their own corruption and un-Americanism. 

To accomplish this, we must have honest, relia- 
ble, instructive literature from the pens of such 
able and conscientious patriots as Mr. Brandt, to 
whom and to whose work I dedicate these intro- 
ductory pages. Such men are a power to the State 
in which they live ; a mountain of strength to vir- 
tue, loyalty and patriotic devotion, and should 
receive the support and esteem of every citizen who 
loves his country and its liberties. 

Detroit, Mich. W. J. H. TRAYNOR. 



This book contains a number of discourses on the 
dogmas, practices and intrigues of Rome. The 
theme is well chosen : " America or Rome : Christ 
or the Pope." The subject is discussed under two 
general divisions : Theological and political. In 
this relation they exist as cause and effect. What- 
ever may be found in political Romanism adverse 
to free American institutions, is the legitimate re- 
sult of the bigoted and corrupt principles of the 
system, embodied in the so-called dogmatic and 
moral theology. The whole system, from infalli- 
bility to purgatory, is based upon arrogant assump- 
tions, sustained neither by the Bible, reason, his- 
tory, nor common sense. Romanism is not, was 
not, and never will be, the true church of Jesus 
Christ. It is an apostasy, a departure from the 
faith, a parasite of pagan paternity, unworthy of 
recognition as a church of Christ. It arrogates to 



16 Introductory. 

itself the "divine right" to violate all the laws of 
God and man, to dominate the nations, to hold the 
keys of heaven and hell, to save or damn the souls 
of men at pleasure. The axe, must, therefore, be 
vigorously applied to the root of the tree, for " a 
corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit." 

This corrupt ecclesiastical monarchy is to-day 
the same persecuting system it was in the dark 
ages ; the same that instituted the Inquisition, and 
caused the death of more than 60,000,000 people — a 
number equal to the present population of the 
United States. And this system, with its Jesuits 
and armed minions is in our midst, plotting the 
destruction of our free American institutions. We, 
therefore, hail with delight any publication tljat is 
adapted to awaken Protestants and patriots to dan- 
ger and to duty. I have read many pages of the 
advance sheets of this book, and do most heartily 
commend it to the people of the United States as 
being well adapted to the present crisis in our 
country and worthy of a wide circulation. 

Stanford, Iu,. J. G. WHITE. 



THE ALLEGED INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



This is the most characteristic dogma of Roman- 
ism. The pretensions of the Church are founded 
on her claims to infallibility. This doctrine is the 
chief stone in the Roman arch. He who disbelieves 
this must abandon her communion. " This dog-ma 
of infallibility," says Gladstone, "exempts the 
Bishop of Rome from error, and resolves the 
Church into the Pope, and substitutes for the 
worship of Christ a man-God in Rome for the God- 
man in Heaven." 

Upon this doctrine the Church must stand or 
fall. If we admit this dogma to be true, we must 
accept as the truth all the official papal bulls of 
mediaeval and modern history. If this dogma be 
true, then in all controversies on faith and morals 
we must look to the Pope for the final settlement. 
If false, it is the basest of blasphemy, and the 
Church of Rome is the nearest approach to the 
fulfillment of the prophecy of the "man of sin" 
and the " Babylon " of Revelation. 

In the discussion of Papal Infallibility, as in all 

other subjects, we shall quote from the decrees of 

her councils, her catechisms, and her standard 

authors. We shall confine ourselves to the English 

2 U7) 



18 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

language, that every intelligent hearer may be 
able to understand our arguments. The following 
is the declaration of the Pope's Infallibility made 
by Pius IX., adopted by the Vatican Council of 
1870: 

"We, the Sacred Council approving, teach and 
define that it is a dogma divinely revealed ; that 
the Roman Pontiff, when speaking ex cathedra, that 
is, when discharging the office of pastor and 
teacher of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme 
authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith 
and morals to be held by the Universal Church — he, 
by the divine assistance promised to him in the 
Blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with 
which the Divine Redeemer willed the Church 
should be endowed in defining doctrine regarding 
faith and morals ; and that, therefore, such defini- 
tions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of 
themselves, and not from the consent of the Church. 
But if any one — which may God avert — presume to 
contradict our definition, let him be anathema." 

It may be of interest to inquire how far this 
infallibility extends : 

1. Over the Scriptures. 

The Council of Trent, which met in the 16th 
century and which is regarded by Romanists as 
infallible, issued the following decree : 

"Inasmuch as it is manifest, from experience, 
that if the Holy Bible translated into the vulgar 
tongue be indiscriminately allowed to every one, 
the temerit} r of men will cause more evil than good 
to arise from it, it is on this point referred to the 
judgment of the Bishops or Inquisitors, who may, 
by the advice of the priests or confessor, permit the 
reading of the Bible, translated into the vulgar 
tongue by Catholic authors, to those persons whose 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 19 

faith and piety they apprehend will be augmented 
and not injured by it ; and this permission they 
must have in writing-. But if anyone shall have 
the presumption to read or possess it without such 
written permission, he shall not receive absolution 
until he has first delivered up such Bible to the 
Ordinary." 

This same Council decreed, " That in matters of 
faith and morals, and whatever relates to the main- 
tenance of Christian doctrine, no one confiding- in 
his own judg-ment shall dare to wrest the Sacred 
Scriptures contrary to that which has been held 
and still is held by the Holy Mother Church, whose 
rig-fit it is to judge of the true meaning- and inter- 
pretation of the Sacred Writ ; or contrary to the 
unanimous consent of the Fathers ; even thoug-h 
such interpretation should never be published." 

The doctrine of the Council of Trent is immu- 
table and infallible while time endures, and no 
General Council can contravene it. It met in a 
boisterous time. It met to define doctrines and 
issue decrees. It met to condemn heretics. The 
Popes sig-ned their decrees, and all that was done, 
was done irrevocably. 

The disavowal of any priest of any of its 
doctrines is of no authority whatever. No matter 
whether they approve it or not, they have to 
submit to it ; and the majority of priests will, on 
all suitable occasions, teach and enforce its de- 
crees. 

Bishop Milner, a prominent Catholic author, in 
" Knd of Controversy," speaking- of the reading- of 
the Scriptures, says : "No such oblig-ation is gen- 
erally incumbent on the flock, that is, on the laity. 
It is sufficient for them to hear the Word of God 



20 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

from those whom God has appointed to announce 
and explain it to them, whether by sermons, or 
other good books, or the tribunal of penance." 

In Deharbe's Large Catechism (page 8) we are 
told : " The Catholic Church which Christ has 
established teaches us infallibly what God has 
revealed." 

On page 39 of the same catechism, we are in- 
formed that: "Infallible decisions in matters 
of faith and morals are given by General Councils 
approved by the Pope, or by the Pope alone speak- 
ing ex cathedra ." Then the question is asked: "What 
do you mean by speaking ex cathedra ?" Ans. ' ' I 
mean when the Pope as Pastor and Teacher of all 
the faithful, decides for the whole Church, in a 
matter of faith or of morals." 

2. Over the Church. 
The Council of Trent declared of the Pope : 

" Sitting in that chair in which Peter, the Prince 
of the Apostles, sat to the close of life, the Catholic 
Church recognizes in his person the most exalted 
degree of dignity, and the full amplitude of juris- 
diction; a dignity and jurisdiction not based on con • 
stitutions, but emanating from no less authority 
than from God Himself. As the Successor of St. 
Peter and the true and legitimate Vicar of Jesus 
Christ, he, therefore, presides over the Universal 
Church, the father and Governor of all the faith- 
ful, of Bishops, also, and of all other prelates, be 
their station, rank, or power, what they may be." 

Behold the limitations of his power : "The full 
amplitude of jurisdiction;" "the Father and Gov- 
ernor of all the faithful." 

In Deharbe's Catechism, No. 2, on page 83, we 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 21 

are told : " The Divine Doctrine in the Church is 
always kept pure and uncorrupted by the Infallible 
Teaching" Body of the Church." Then the question 
is asked : " Who compose the Infallible Teaching- 
Body ?" 

Ans. " The Pope, and Bishops united with him." 

Another important question : " Why cannot the 
Pope teach error when he speaks ex cathedra ? ' 

Ans. "Because Christ will not allow him to do 
so." 

The next question: "What oug-ht we to do, 
when disputes arise in matters of faith ?" 

Ans. "We must hold to the decisions of the 
Church." 

The Constitution of the Church, over which the 
Vatican Council had such a desperate struggle, 
claims (see Vatican Council, Kncy. Brit.) : 

" That the Pope's jurisdiction is immediate in all 
Churches — i e., he is the universal ordinary, the 
actual bishop of every See (all other bishops being- 
merely his curates and deputies) and is not a remote 
or merely appellate authority — so that in questions 
not of faith and morals alone, but of discipline and 
g-overnment also, all the faithful, of whatever right 
or dig-nity, both pastors and laity, are bound, indi- 
vidually and collectively, to submit themselves 
thereto ; that it is unlawful to appeal from the 
judg-ments of the Roman Pontiffs to an ecumenical 
council, as thoug-h to a hig-her authority; and that 
the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, and 
defines a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by 
the universal church, is infallible, and such defini- 
tions are accordingly irreformable of themselves, 
and not from the consent of the Church." 

This document was voted upon July, 1870 ; 451 



22 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

voted in the affirmative ; 88 voted against it ; 62 
voted they would accept it if it was modified ; and 
70 did not vote at all. 

Amongst those who voted ag'ainst it were many 
of the best educated and influential Bishops. Three 
hundred of those who voted in favor of it were 
guests of the Pope, lodged and maintained at his 
cost. Immediately after this voting- nearly all the 
bishops of the minority left Rome. Their flig-ht 
was prompted by fears for their personal safety. 
They were g-iven to understand that they had to 
support these Dogmas, or resign the charg-e of 
their respective Dioceses. There were many pro- 
tests amongst the most enlightened, against these 
Infallible Dogmas. Several books were written 
against them, but finally all had to submit to them, 
whether they believed in them or not.* 

3. Over Temporal Affairs. 
Pope Leo, in the Encyclical of 1890, speaking on 
the question of obedience to the laws of the state, 
says: "That cases happen in which the state 
demands one thing from the citizen, and relig- 
ion the opposite from Christians, and this, un- 
doubtedly, for no other reason than that the heads 
of the state pay no regard to the sacred power 
of the Church, or desire to make it subject to 
them. ... It is an impious deed to break 
the laws of Jesus Christ [by which is meant the 
Pope as Temporal Ruler] for the purpose of obey- 
ing the magistrates, or to transgress the laws of the 
Church under the pretext of observing" civil law." 

*See Appendix No. 1. 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 23 

THE CANON LAW OF PAPACY. 

This is the acknowledged and the fundamental 
code of Romanism. The following" distinct stip- 
ulations were gleaned therefrom for the future use 
of the Church by Dr. G. F. Von Schulte, Professor 
of Canonical Law at Prague : 

"1. All human power is from evil, and must 
therefore be standing- under the Pope. 

44 2. The temporal powers must act uncondition- 
ally, in accordance with the orders of the spiritual. 

"3. The Church is empowered to grant, or to 
take away, any temporal possession. 

"4. The Pope has the right to give countries 
and nations which are non-Catholic to Catholic re- 
gents, who can reduce them to slavery. 

"5. The Pope can make slaves of those Chris- 
tian subjects whose prince or ruling power is in- 
terdicted by the Pope. 

" 6. The laws of the Church, concerning the 
liberty of the Church and the Papal power, are 
based upon divine inspiration. 

"7." The Church has the right to practice the 
unconditional censure of books. 

"8. The Pope has the right to annul state 
laws, treaties, constitutions, etc., to absolve from 
obedience thereto, as soon as they seem detrimental 
to the rights of the Church, or those of the clergy. 

"9. The Pope possesses the right of admonish- 
ing, and, if needs be, of punishing the temporal 
rulers, emperors, and kings, as well as of drawing 
before the spiritual forum any case in which a 
mortal sin occurs. 

" 10. Without the consent of the Pope no tax or 
rate of any kind can be levied upon a clergyman, 
or upon any church whatsoever. 

"11. The Pope has the right to absolve from 
oaths and obedience to persons and the laws of the 
princes whom he excommunicates. 



24 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 



1 1 



12. The Pope can annul all legal relations of 
those in ban, especially their marriages. 

" 13. The Pope can release from every obliga- 
tion, oath, vow, either before or after being" made. 

" 14. The execution of the Papal commands for 
the persecution of heretics causes remission of sins. 

"15. He who kills one that is excommunicated 
is no murderer in a legal sense." 

THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OP ERRORS. 

The following* paragraphs gleaned from the syl- 
labus of Pius IX., issued December 8, 1864, will 
give some idea of the territory this alleged infalli- 
bility covers : 

" The state has not the right to leave every man 
free to profess and embrace whatever religion he 
shall deem true. 

" It has not the right to enact that the ecclesias- 
tical power shall require the permission of the civil 
power in order to the exercise of its authority. 

"It has not the right to treat as an excess of 
power, or as usurping the rights of princes, any- 
thing that the Roman Pontiffs or Ecumenical 
Councils have done. 

" It has not the right to adopt the conclusions of 
a National Church Council, unless confirmed by the 
Pope. 

" It has not the right of establishing a National 
Church separate from the Pope. 

" It has not the right to the entire direction of 
public schools. It has not the right to assist 
subjects who wish to abandon monasteries or con- 
vents." 

Then in the same Syllabus the rights and powers 
of the Church are affirmed thus, viz.: 

" She has the right to require the state not to 
leave every man free to profess his own religion. 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 25 

"She has the right to exercise her power with- 
out the permission or consent of the state. 

" She has the right to prevent the foundation of 
any National Church not subject to the authority 
of the Roman Pontiff. 

" She has the right to deprive the civil authority 
of the entire government of the public schools. 

" She has the right of perpetuating the union of 
Church and state. 

" She has the right to require that the Catholic 
religion shall be the only religion of the state, to 
the exclusion of all others. 

" She has the right to prevent the state from 
granting the public exercise of their own worship 
to persons immigrating into it. 

" She has the power of requiring the State not 
to permit free expression of opinion." 

Sa} 7 s Rev. Lansing: "It is needless to say that 
the history of Romanism shows the oft-repeated 
application of all the foregoing claims and prin- 
ciples. The present Pontiff, Leo XIII. , explicitly 
confirms the feregoing, thus : 4 The teaching given 
by this Apostolic See, whether contained in the 
S}ilabus and other Acts of our illustrious predeces- 
sor, or in our own Encyclical Letters, has given 
clear guidance to the faithful as to what should be 
their thoughts and their conduct in the midst of 
the difficulties of times and events. There they 
will find a rule for the direction of their minds and 
their works.' Again, in his Encyclical of 1885, he 
approves the Syllabus, repudiates the idea that 
' each man should be allowed freely to think on 
whatever subject he pleases,' and condemns any 
government in which ' everyone will be allowed to 
follow the religion he prefers.'" . 

The Fifth Annual German Catholic Congress 
assembled in Buffalo, N. Y., on September 23, 1891, 



26 America, or IIome: Christ or the Pope; 

and adopted a platform in which occurs the follow- 
ing bold statements : 

"With delight the German American Congress 
embraces also in this year, the opportunity of point- 
ing out publicly and distinctly its position on the. 
so-called Roman question — namely, the temporal 
power of the Pope. Besides the extreme religious 
importance of the question itself, we, as faithful 
children of the Church, deem it our sacred duty to 
make this public declaration of the reason that the 
Holy Father, himsel-f the most competent, and 
indeed the only competent judge in the matter, has 
never ceased both to proclaim solemnly and forcibly 
his inviolable rights to the territorial independence of 
the Holy See, and to encourage the Catholics to fearlessly 
defend their rights. As free American citizens we 
will not tolerate any interference with the free 
expression of our views on this extremely important 
Church matter. 

"With confidence we leave it to Divine Provi- 
dence by what means the restoration of Papal Inde- 
pendence will be brought about by Secular Power. 
In the meantime we will never cease to courageously 
sustain the Holy Father, in accordance with his 
intentions and admonitions, everyone in his own 
sphere and according to his ability, in that right of 
the head of the Church, and to strive with all legal 
and legitimate means to regain the freedom due to 
the successor of St. Peter. In this respect, we greet 
with the utmost pleasure the idea suggested at the 
recent Catholic Congress held in Germany, to call 
an International Catholic Congress for the purpose 
of urging the restoration of the temporal power of 
the Pope as an Independent Sovereign* For the reason 
that political circumstances have prevented the 
adoption of said resolution in Europe, we believe 
that our beloved Country, the Land of the Free, is 
the proper place for holding such a Congress, since 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 27 

we are not hampered by political prejudices and 
imperial intrigues.'' 

At the Baltimore Catholic Congress, the follow- 
ing- resolution was adopted : " We cannot conclude 
without recording- our solemn conviction that the 
absolute freedom of the Holy See is equally indis- 
pensable to the peace of the Church and the wel- 
fare of mankind." 

Many similar declarations have been made by 
Catholic Congresses, demanding temporal power 
for the Pope and his absolute freedom. 

G. D. Wolff, D. D., at the Baltimore Catholic 
Congress, stated : " The Church comprehends in 
its teaching office all the relations of man to God, 
to himself, to his neighbor and to society." 

Pope Gregory said : " The Pope is the represen- 
tative of God on earth ; he should then govern the 
world. To him alone, pertain infallibility and uni- 
versality ; all men are submitted to his laws, and 
he can only be judged by God ; he ought to wear 
imperial ornaments ; people and kings should kiss 
his feet ; Christians are irrevocably submitted to 
his orders ; they should murder their princes, fath- 
ers and children, if he command it ; no council 
can be declared universal without the orders of the 
Pope ; no book can be received as Canonical with- 
out his authority ; finally, no good or evil exists 
but in what he has condemned or approved." 

In Keenan's Catechism we are told : " The Pope 
could not discharge his office as teacher of all na- 
tions unless he was able with infallible certainty to 
prescribe and condemn doctrines, logical, scientific, 
physical, metaphysical, or political, of any kind." 
This is more plainly stated on page 195, where St. 



23 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Thomas Aquinas asks the question : " Can the Pope 
deprive the Sovereign of his temporal power if he be- 
comes an apostate from the faith ? " And he replies 
to this question as follows: "When a sentence of 
excommunication is judicially pronounced against 
a Sovereign for apostasy, his subjects are from the 
very fact free from all allegiance." Cardinal Gib- 
bons says : " The Church has the right to punish 
a Catholic Sovereign for abandoning the faith ; 
she can dipossess him of his estates if she judges 
this punishment useful for the good of her chil- 
dren." 

Bishop Gilmour, of Cleveland, Ohio, in his Len- 
ten letter, March, 1873, said : " Nationalities must 
be subordinate to religion, and we must learn that 
we are Catholics first, and citizens next. God is 
above man, and the Church above state." 

In one of Pope Leo's Encyclical Letters he states: 
"It is an impious deed to break the laws of Jesus 
Christ for the purpose of obeying a magistrate, or 
to transgress the laws of the Church under the pre- 
text of obeying the civil laws. Every Catholic 
should rigidly adhere to the teachings of the Ro- 
man Pontiff, especially in the matter of modern 
liberty, which already under the semblance of hon- 
esty of purpose, leads to destruction. We exhort 
all Catholics to devote careful attention to public 
matters, and take part in all municipal affairs and 
elections, and all public services, meetings and 
gatherings. All Catholics must make themselves 
felt as active elements in daily political life in 
countries where they live. All Catholics should 
exert their power to cause the constitutions of 
states to be modeled on the principles of the True 
Church." (November 7, 1890.) 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 29 

Mr. Gladstone states, in his " Vaticanism," page 
141: "The Council of the Vatican decreed that 
the Pope had from Christ the immediate power 
over the Universal Church, that all were bound to 
obey him, of whatever right and dignity, collec- 
tively as well as individually. That this duty of 
obedience extends to all matters of faith and mor- 
als, and of the discipline and government of the 
Church ; that in all ecclesiastical causes he is a 
judge without appeal or possibility of reversal."* 

Mr. Gladstone further states : '* Absolute obedi- 
ence is due the Pope at the peril of salvation, not 
only in faith, in morals, but in all things which 
concern the discipline and government of the 
Church. Even in the United States, where the 
severance between the Church and state is sup- 
posed to be complete, a long catalogue may be 
drawn of subjects belonging to the domain and 
competency of the state, but also undeniably affect- 
ing the government of the Church ; such as, by 
way of example, marriage, burial, education, prison- 
discipline, blasphemy, poor-relief, incorporation, 
mortmain, religious endowment, vows of celib- 
acy, and obedience. But on all matters respecting 
which any Pope may think proper to declare that 
they concern either faith or morals, or the govern- 
ment or the discipline of the Church, he claims 
(with the approval of a council, undoubtedly ecu- 
menical in the Roman sense) the absolute obe- 
dience, at the peril of salvation, of every member 
of his communion." 

These statements teach us that the Pope claims 
supreme and absolute authority in both temporal 
and spiritual affairs, in politics and religion. He 
may control you body and soul. He claims the 
right to govern your country, to regulate your liter- 

*See Appendix No. 2. 



30 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

ature, and dictate your politics. What he asserts, 
must be believed ; what he commands, must be 
obeyed. When Rome speaks, the matter ends. No 
matter what he requires, his people are bound to 
do it. Is it any wonder that the Pope expects 
those who approach him to prostrate themselves 
and kiss his great toe, as did a delegation in the 
early part of this century from the Irish College. 
Also at the coronation of Pope Leo, whose biogra- 
pher, Rev. Joseph K. Keller, says: " The Cardi- 
nals then approached him one by one and tendered 
him their obedience. They ascended the steps of 
the throne one by one and kissed the right hand of 
the Pontiff. The Archbishops and the Bishops 
kissed the Pontiff's foot." And also a delegation 
of sixty Catholics from Canada, in the year 1894, 
an account of which was wired to the Associated 
Press of the United States, and of which the Toledo 
Blade said : "If they can stand it, we can." 

Romanism respects no interests that conflict 
with its own ; admits no truth except what is sub- 
servient to its own purposes. Are we not justified, 
then, in saying - that of all bigotries it is the most 
bigoted, of all despotisms it is the most despotic, 
and of all tyrannies it is the most tyrannical ? Who 
would presume to limit the authority of the Pope ? 
Who would dare to rebel against it ? And of the 
catechism that teaches this infallibilit}', one of 
their Bishops says, he wishes he had money enough 
to send a copy to every house in the United States 
and that he " could see it thumbed by Protestants 
and infidels." Every one who joins a Catholic 



32 America or Rome: Cfirist or the Pope. 

Church must believe and obey this infallible Pope, 
"The Successor of St. Peter," "The Vicar of 
Christ," "His Holiness," "Eternal Judge in the 
Church," "Voice of God," "Father and Govern- 
or," " God Incarnate." They are taught to believe 
and to recite the following- in the cfeed of Pope 
Pius IV.: 

" I acknowledge the holy Catholic and Apostolic 
Roman Church as the mother and mistress of 
all churches ; and to the Pope of Rome, Succes- 
sor of the blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles 
and Vicar of Jesus Christ, I promise true obedience." 

Says the Encyclopedia Britannica : " Clearly, if 
the Papacy could be converted into an absolute 
monarchy, this end would be attained at a single 
stroke, because the mere fiat of the Supreme Pon- 
tiff would thenceforward suffice as warrant for all 
ecclesiastical action, thus dispensing with cum- 
brous and dilatory machinery of every kind ; and 
his delegated authority would enable any per- 
son wielding it to act with similar efficacy and dis- 
patch." 

The Holy Mother Church claims that her infal- 
libility and that of the Pope rests upon the Scrip- 
tures and tradition ; then, by these let this alleged 
infallibility be tried. 

SCRIPTURES. 

I have read the Scriptures, and I find not a word 
said about the infallibility of the Pope. I find 
no tangible aid given to such a theory. I find not 
even a distant allusion to it. In one of the Ro- 
man Catholic catechisms the question is asked, 
"What are the essential parts of the Church?" 
and the answer given is : "A Pope or Supreme 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 33 

Head, bishops, pastors, and laity." Of course the 
most important is the "Pope" or the "Head." 

By referring" to the Scriptures you will find that 
nothing- is said of the Pope — a Supreme Head. The 
New Testament, all will agree, is the only authen- 
ticated standard of faith and doctrine, and it 
nowhere teaches anything" about a "Pope," but to 
the contrary : "Be not ye called Rabbi : for one is 
your Master, and all ye are brethren ; and call none 
Father, for one is } r our Father, he that is in 
heaven ; neither be ye called masters, for one is 
your Master, Christ." This expression indicates 
the equality of rank among" the apostles and dis- 
ciples of Christ, and forbids the assumption of the 
title of "Father" or "Pope." "Pope," in both 
the Greek and Latin, means "Father;" and Jesus 
has taug"ht us to call none " Father " save He that 
is in heaven. 

This testimony of Christ's is sufficient to settle 
the whole question. With such words he humbled 
the pride of the Jewish Rabbis and unmasks and 
untitles the Pope. 

In Kphesians we read : " And he g"ave some, 
apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evangel- 
ists ; and some, pastors and teachers." In this 
enumeration, which contains the whole, there is 
no Pope. The first rank is g"iven to the apostles. 

Let us examine some of the main passages upon 
which they base the authorit} 7 for the Pope and 
his Infallibility : 

1. Matt. 16, 13-18. " Thou art Peter, and upon 
this rock I will build my Church" In the original the 

3 



34 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

words "Peter" and "Rock" sound much alike. 
In the teachings of Jesus he consecrated every 
scene, circumstance, and topic of conversation to 
relig-ion. To the fishermen he said : " Follow me, 
and I will make you fishers of men." To the Samar- 
itan woman he said : " Whoever drinks of the water 
that I shall give him shall never thirst." To some 
of his enemies he said : " Destroy this temple, and 
I will build it in three days." And so in the pas- 
sage under consideration, he asks his disciples the 
important question, li Whom do you say that I 
am ?" And Peter makes the great confession, 
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living- God." 
And Jesus says to him, " Thou art Stone, and upon 
this rock I will build my Church." Note the differ- 
ence between the words " thou " and " this." The 
end and aim of the question is not "Peter," but 
" Christ." The rock is Christ. This is a heavenly 
confession, for says Jesus : "Flesh and blood hath 
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is 
in heaven." This truth was revealed unto Peter 
at Christ's baptism. 

There are other passag-es that throw additional 
lig-ht upon this subject. It was prophesied in the 
Old Testament : " Therefore thus saith the Lord 
God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a 
stone, a precious stone, a sure foundation ; he that 
believeth shall not make haste." Paul says : 
"Other foundation can no man lay than that 
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Ag-ain he 
says: "We are built upon the foundation of the 
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being- 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 35 

the chief corner stone." This teaches us that the 
Church is built upon the foundation of the apostles 
and prophets, and not upon any one of them. 

To support Papal Infallibility the Romanists 
quote : 

2. " And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven j and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth 
shall be loosed in heaven." 

This might strengthen the claims set up for 
Peter if Christ had not given precisely the same 
authority to the other apostles. In the 18th chapter 
of Matthew he addressed all of the apostles, say- 
ing" : " Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall 
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and what- 
soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in 
heaven." Therefore, this authority was not con- 
ferred exclusively upon Peter. 

There has been a great controversy about these 
keys. Jesus gave them to Peter, and not to his 
heirs and successors. The true exposition of the 
keys I claim was the opening of the kingdom of 
heaven by Peter to the Jews and Gentiles. In the 
second chapter of Acts we read how he opened the 
kingdom to the Jews by proclaiming that God hath 
made Jesus both Lord and Christ. On that day he 
declared remission to several thousands of souls 
and introduced them into the kingdom of Christ. 
Some eight or ten years afterwards he visited the 
Gentiles and proclaimed the kingdom to Cornelius, 
a Roman centurion, and his family. He thus 
opened the two-leaved gate and introduced both 



36 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope 

Jews and Gentiles into the kingdom. This having* 
been done, it needs not to be repeated. The gates 
of heaven have not yet been closed. Peter gave 
the keys to no one, for there was no more need of 
them. He will guard them until he who has the 
key of David and who is the head of the Church 
will appear the second time. Peter was given the 
keys to open the house to the Jews and the Gen- 
tiles. Is the servant who has the keys greater than 
the master of the house ? The only distinction 
between him and the other apostles is a priority 
of time, corresponding to the priority of his con- 
fession of Christ. 

" This is the truth," says Gladstone, " that un- 
derlies the colossal lie of Papacy. The great error 
of Papacy is that it perverts a primacy of honor 
into a supremacy of jurisdiction, a personal privi- 
lege into an official prerogative, and a priority of 
time into a permanent superiority of rank." 

Three times after the keys were given to Peter 
the dispute arose among them as to who should 
be the greatest — a dispute which could never have 
arisen had Jesus already openly and distinctly as- 
signed the supremacy to Peter. Christ settled 
these disputes by stating that he would be the 
greatest who should be the humblest. But the 
Pope, who claims to be Peter's successor, would 
exercise temporal authority over the people. No 
one who ever heard of the pomp, and parade, and 
wealth of Rome would imagine the Pope ever had 
read this language of Jesus. 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 37 

PETER NEITHER CLAIMED NOR EXER- 
CISED ANY AUTHORITY OVER 
THE OTHER APOSTLES. 

Peter wrote two letters, and in neither one does 
he claim to be the Supreme Head of the Church, 
or the Vicar of Christ. He calls himself "a ser- 
vant" and "an apostle," not the Prince of Apostles; 
he exhorts the elders, as "a co-elder" ; describes 
himself as "a partaker of the glory that shall be 
revealed" ; he addresses the second epistle to them 
that "have obtained like precious faith with our- 
selves" ; not a word can be found in these epistles 
from which it can be inferred that Peter claimed 
the least authorit}' beyond that possessed by the 
other apostles. 

If Peter had been the head of the Church and 
the Vicar of Christ, would he not have known it ? 
Would there not have been some statement or in- 
ference of it in his epistles ? But, on the contrary, 
he declares, in the second chapter of the First 
Epistle, that Christ is the rock whereupon we are 
built, and that He is made the head of the corner. 

NOTHING IS SAID IN THE ACTS OF THE 

APOSTLES ABOUT PETER'S 

SUPREMACY. 

In these twenty-eight chapters we read nothing" 
about Peter as a Pope. He is spoken of as one 
of the apostles, and in one chapter it states 
that the apostles sent Peter and John to Samaria, 



38 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Thus we see that. Peter was subject to his 
brethren, just as John and the other brethren. Who 
ever heard of a Pope of Rome being" sent on 
such business ? The first Christian convention 
that was ever held, was held in Jerusalem to dis- 
cuss some matters about some Judaizing teachers, 
and "it was determined that Paul and Barnabas 
should g-o up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and 
elders about the question." Nothing is said about 
grring to Peter. When they arrived at Jerusalem 
we are told : "The apostles and elders came to- 
gether for to consider this matter." Nothing is 
said about Peter presiding* over the council ; he 
only g*ave his views upon the subject, as did Bar- 
nabas, Paul and others. And after they were all 
heard, James arose and passed sentence upon the 
whole matter, in which the council acquiesced, 
and wrote to the churches accordingly. Now it 
appears evident from this that James and not Peter 
presided in this council, and if there was any Pope 
it was James and not Peter. 

NOTHING IN PAUL'S EPISTLES ABOUT 
PETER BEING A POPE. 

Paul's Epistle to the church in Rome does not 
contain even the name of Peter. In addressing 
the church at Corinth he said : " Now this I say, 
that every one of you saith, I am of Paul ; and I 
of Apollos ; and I of Cephas ; and I of Christ. Is 
Christ divided ? was Paul crucified for you ? or 
were ye baptized in the name of Paul ? " In this, 



The Alleged Infallibility op the Kjpe. 39 

it is evident that Peter was not the Prince of the 
Apostles, the Vicar of Christ. 

The next time Peter's name is mentioned he is 
spoken of as leading- about a wife — a singular busi- 
ness for a Pope. In this respect the Pope is not 
following- Peter. Paul speaks of himself in this 
manner : " For in nothing- am I behind the very 
chief est apostles." Now if Peter had been the 
Prince of Apostles, Paul would not have made such 
a statement. So far from Paul's being- dependent 
on Peter, or inferior to him, he withstood Peter 
"face to face," for "he was to be blamed." He 
was to be blamed because he compelled the Gentiles 
to live as the Jews. It would thus appear that 
Paul reproved Pope Peter in the presence of all his 
brethren. 

In all of Paul's writing-s he g-ives no hint of Peter 
being the Head of the Church or of him having 
any successors. But he alludes, again and again, 
to Christ being the foundation and corner stone of 
the Church. He makes no allusion to a Universal 
Bishop, nor to the temporal power of such a per- 
sonage, but he condemns the Pope's position 
when he says that he who resisteth the civil power 
resisteth the ordinance of God. Paul spoke and 
wrote as moved by the Holy Spirit, and therefore 
could not and did not make any mistake as to 
Peter's Primacy, or as to any such person as a 
Vicar of Christ over the Church at large. 



40 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

IF CHRIST HAD ESTABLISHED SUCH AN 

OFFICE HE CERTAINLY WOULD 

HAVE DEFINED IT. 

He certainly would have described the qualifica- 
tions to be possessed by the incumbent, and would 
have defined the powers to be exercised by him. 
When God appointed the Levitical priesthood, he 
defined their qualifications and powers. When he 
appointed a civil government, he gave a code of 
laws according to which it was to be administered. 
When the office of king was created, he told the 
people the manner of the kingdom, and Moses 
pointed out the qualifications the king must possess 
and the limits of his authority. 

When God appointed deacons and elders in the 
Church he named their qualifications and duties. 
But nowhere do we find any office to be filled by a 
Pope, or any qualifications to be possessed to fill 
such an office, or its powers and duties defined. 

We are constrained, therefore, to say from the 
standpoint of God's Word, that no provision or 
promise was made for a Pope ; and is it not 
strange, if the infallibility of the Pope is true, that 
Jesus Christ and the Apostles said nothing about it ? 
They must have been blind teachers ; they must 
have failed in teaching the true doctrines of the 
Church. 

If the Pope is infallible, it is not of the Bible 
kind and not of the apostolic sort. The apostles 
were chosen to perform extraordinary duties, at an 
extraordinary time, and were therefore endowed 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 41 

with extraordinar} T gifts and power. They did 
their work and have gone to their reward, and it is 
nothing- short of bold presumption for any one to 
lay claim to their extraordinary power, gifts and 
authority. The modern Popes have laid claim to 
more authority than the apostles, or Christ, who 
taught a kingdom that is not of this world, and, to 
be subject to the civil powers ; whereas the Popes 
have claimed the right to exercise supreme 
temporal power over all sovereigns when the 
good of religion required it. They have deposed 
kings, declared war, and made peace. What an 
impious prostitution of the office they regard as 
the highest and most sacred on earth ! 

INFALLIBILITY TRIED BY TRADITION. 

An examination of the primitive fathers, creeds 
and councils down to the fifth century discovers no 
idea of a Supreme Head, Pope, or Vicar of Christ 
in the Church. 

1. The Early Creeds of the Church. — The four ecu- 
menical creeds contain the most authentic expres- 
sions of the faith of the Eastern and Western 
Churches, but not one word is said about the Pope 
of Rome, the Successor of Peter and Infallible 
Vicar of Christ. If it had been believed then as it 
is believed now, it certainly would have appeared 
in one of those general creeds, and some allusion 
made to it in one or more of the numerous local 
creeds of the primitive days of the Church. 

2. The Early Councils of the Church — The records 
of the ecumenical councils of the first six centuries 



42 America or Eome: Christ or the Pope. 

are as silent as death upon the question of Papal 
Infallibility. They were convened by emperors 
and not by popes. Their decisions were authori- 
tative without submitting- them to the approval of 
Rome. Had there been any Pope, or Vicar of Christ, 
there certainly would have been some allusion to 
him. 

3. The Primitive Fathers of the Church — There are 
many of these, and their writing's are extensive ; 
but nowhere do they acknowledge the existence of 
such a person as a Pope. Had there been any 
Pope with supreme authority they would at least 
have made some allusion to such an important per- 
sonage. The fact that they do not make mention 
of such an office is pretty good evidence that there 
was no such office in the Church. 

4. The Heretical Popes Disprove the Claim of Infal- 
libility, — Many of the Popes contradicted the title of 
" Holiness" and many of them were at variance in 
the faith. Some taught one thing-, and some the 
opposite ; some claimed infallibility, and some dis- 
claimed it ; some were faithful to their office, and 
some were excommunicated as heretics. 

5. The Interregnum Disproves the Claim of Infalli- 
bility. — For seventy years there was no Pope in 
Rome, besides all the other interregnums. The 
Pope resided at Avignon, in France, and left St. 
Peter's chair empty. For almost half a century 
there were two Popes and two lines of Popes exist- 
ing at the same time, one reigning in Italy, and 
one in France. And at last there were three Popes: 
Benedict XIII. , Gregory XII.— the French Pope, 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Tope. 43 

John XXIII. — the Italian Pope ; then the Council 
met and deposed the three Popes and appointed a 
fourth Pope. After these interregnums can any 
man have any confidence in any Pope being- the 
Successor of Peter? 

6. The Vice of the Throne Disproves it. — If several 
links of the chain are rotten, down goes infalli- 
bility. This throne, which has affected to exalt 
itself above kings, has at times been sunk in filth. 
More than one Roman Pontiff was guilty of hideous 
vices. What contentions! What schisms! What 
flagrant vice ! What vile affections! What unholy 
examples for millions of followers ! In speaking of 
some of these scandalous men, the highly educated 
Archbishop Purcell said : " Without doubt some of 
the Popes are in hell." Now what I would impress 
upon you is this : If the Pope is the Supreme Head 
ot the Church, and the Vicar of Christ on earth, 
and receives his authority from God, should we not 
expect him to be moral in his conduct, and act as 
becoming a personage of such an exalted dignity ? 
I am persuaded that it is compatible with God's 
character to not permit vice to accompany infalli- 
bility. 

7. Their Controversies Disprove it. — For many years 
the Roman Catholics have been divided as to the 
seat of this infallibility, and this is a satisfactory 
proof that no such privilege exists. Some place 
this infallibility in the Pope, some in the General 
Council, some in both, and some in the Church. 
This is a singular controversy. Would Christ im- 
part this important gift to any man to guide his 



44 America ok Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

Church and not let him know it, and not satisfy his 
people on that point ? When Moses was appointed 
to lead the people to the Promised Land, he knew 
it, and the people were satisfied on that point. If 
the Popes had been infallible they would have 
known it and would have settled this dispute ; they 
would not have permitted bishops to have called it 
in question. And if they were not infallible, why 
did they permit the people to believe and defend 
it ? If it is only a matter of opinion, then the 
whole Church rests on an opinion. 

This question has been of such importance that 
the Vatican Council (1870) declared the Pope to be 
infallible. Now, if he had been infallible before 
this, there would have been no need of a council to 
have made him infallible. Where did the council 
receive its power to declare the Pope infallible ? 
In their Controversial Catechism, which was exten- 
sively used prior to 1870, we read the following- 
question and answer : " Must not Catholics believe 
the Pope himself to be Infallible ? Ans. This is a 
Protestant invention ; it is no article of Catholic 
faith." In all the editions since the Vatican Coun- 
cil of 1870, this question and answer is omitted, 
and that, too, without any explanation. And } r et 
we are taught that the Roman Catholic Church 
never changes. What was once a Protestant inven- 
tion is now a received doctrine of the Church. 
Bishop Purcell, in his debate with Campbell, said : 
" No enlightened Catholic holds the Pope's infalli- 
bility to be an article of faith " And now, in the 
Catechisms for both young and old, the infallibility 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 45 

of the Pope is taught. This fact, alone, disproves 
the Pope's infallibility. The truth is, that this 
whole infallible business is the greatest farce ever 
enacted in the name of God. It isjio wonder that 
enlightened Catholics are agitating reformation 
and seeking more substantial ground upon which 
to rest their faith. 

THERE IS A WIDE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 
ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 

The Pope is the infallible guide for the former, 
and the Scriptures for the latter. We are told in 
Acts that "the Bereans were more noble than 
those in Thessalonica, in that they received 
the word with all readiness of mind, and 
searched the scriptures daily, whether those things 
were so." And the result was, that many of them 
believed. The apostles reasoned out of the Scrip- 
tures, and the Bereans, not certain that the doc- 
trines were true, examined the Scriptures to satisfy 
their minds on the subject. They neither appealed 
to tradition, nor to priest, nor to scribe, nor to 
Pharisee, nor to Pope. The Scriptures were their 
infallible guide. By them they tested the truth of 
the apostles' doctrine, and because of this thev 
were commended as being more noble than those of 
Thessalonica. 

If it was commendable in the Bereans to search 
the Scriptures, it is equally commendable for Chris- 
tians to do so at the present time. What then are we 
to think of the Roman clergy who would condemn 
the people for that which Paul praised them ? 



•JO America or Rome* Christ or the Pope. 

The law and the testimony was the infallible tri- 
bunal for the Jewish Church from Abraham to 
Christ, and the New Testament Scriptures served 
as the infallible g-uide for the Christian Church 
from the time of the apostles to the beginning- of 
Popery. Jesus Christ denied the infallibility of 
the Pharisees, condemned their traditions, and pro- 
nounced them blind g-uides whose teachings were 
fatal to their disciples. 

On the other hand he exhorted the people to 
"search the Scriptures." This the Protestants of 
to-day are doing. They are cumbered with no 
human compositions and no traditions making" the 
Word of God of no effect. They g-o not in search 
of fallible men and encyclical letters. They g-o at 
once to the pure Word of God, to that Word which 
is a "lig-ht to their feet and a lamp to their path." 
They permit no priest to step between them and 
their Saviour. They believe that Christ and 
the apostles g-ave to the world an infallible rule of 
faith and practice, that their words are sufficient 
to make wise unto salvation, and are sufficient for 
doctrine, correction and instruction in righteous- 
ness. 

The Protestants believe that Christ is the Head 
of the Church as the husband is the head of the 
wife. He is the bridegroom and she is the bride. 
As the wife can have but one husband, so the 
Church can have but one head. He is our g-uide 
and protector. To Him we yield a willing and de- 
lightful obedience. It is our desire to grow up in 
Him who is head over all. He is the foundation 



The Alleged Infallibility of the Pope. 47 

of the Church. We are built upon this foundation. 
It is the foundation of the prophets and the apos- 
tles. It is a strong-, abiding, tried, chosen, and 
precious foundation. Jesus likens the man who 
builds upon this foundation to the wise man who 
built his house upon a rock ; and when the rains 
descended and the floods came, and the wind blew, 
and beat upon that house it fell not, for it was 
founded upon a rock. 

And those who hearkened not to His words, 
and built not upon His foundation, but upon wood, 
hay, stubble, upon the traditions and command- 
ments of men, He likens unto a foolish man who 
built his house upon the sand ; and when the rains 
descended and the floods came, and the winds blew, 
and beat upon that house it fell, and great was the 
fall of it. 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION. 



In every Catholic church there is a curtained 
recess called the confessional-box. Here the peni- 
tent meets the priest, the former kneeling-, the 
latter seated. The priest questions, and the peni- 
tent recites all the secret thoughts, desires, words 
and acts, vile or vicious, since last they met. It is 
called "auricular," because it is made into the 
auris, or ear, of the priest. 

Its Origin. 

It was unknown during- the primitive days of 
Christianity. It is one of the many abominations 
introduced during mediaeval times. It is a fact, 
which learned Romanists do not deny, that auricu- 
lar confession became a doctrine and practice of 
the Church at the Council of Lateran, in the year 
1215. Pope Innocent III., of Inquisition fame, is 
the founder. 

Thus, you see, it is a modern invention. Roman 
Catholics do not generally know this, nor would 
they be allowed to know it. Its continuance 
depends upon keeping the people ignorant in regard 
to its origin. It took Satan more than twelve 
hundred years to introduce it. It is one of the 

(48) 



The Auricular C »xfession. 40 

many abominations that was introduced during- a 
corrupt age. 

The Teachings of the Church upon this 

Subject. 

In the ki Catechism for Beginners" the question 
is asked, " What is the sacrament of penance ?'' 
The answer given is, "Penance is a sacrament in 
which the sins committed after baptism are for- 
given." 

The next question of importance is as follows : 
" How do you know that the priest has the power 
of absolving- from the sins after baptism ?" 

44 A. Because Jesus Christ granted that power 
to the priests of His Church when he said, ' Receive 
3^e the Holy Ghost ; whose sins ye forgive, they 
are forgiven them ; whose sins ye retain, they are 
retained.'" 

Note the bold assertion, " Jesus Christ granted 
this power to the priests of His Church." How is 
the child, or an ignorant adult, or one educated in 
a Catholic school, to know how much the Scrip- 
tures are here perverted and how much there is of 
false statement ? 

In Deharbe's Catechism, page 150, the question 
is asked : " What is the sacrament of penance ? 

"A. It is a sacrament in which the priest, as 
God's representative, forgives sins when the sinner 
is heartily sorry for them, sincerely confesses them, 
and is willing to do penance for them. 

" Q. Does the priest really forgive the sins, or 
does he only declare them forgiven ? 

"A. The priest really and truly forgives sins 
through the power given him by Christ," 



50 America or Rome: Christ or tub Pope. • 

On page 151 the question is asked : kk Can all sins 
be forgiven in the sacrament of penance ? 

"A. Yes ; all sins committed after baptism can 
be forgiven, if we confess them with the right dis- 
position of repentance." 

The following questions are asked : 

" Q. What is confession ? 

"A. Confession is the sorrowful accusation of 
our sins to a priest, in order that we may obtain 
absolution from him. 

k 'Q. What qualities are necessary for confes- 
sion ? 

"A. Confession must be (1) complete (2) sin- 
cere, and (3) clear. 

" Q- When is confession complete ? 

" A. Confession is complete when we confess at 
least all the mortal sins that we remember, as well 
as number and circumstances. 

" Q- What must we do if we cannot recall. their 
number ? 

"A. We must tell the number as nearly as we 
can, and declare about how often in a day, week, 
or month we have committed the sin. 

" Q- What circumstances must we confess ? 

"A. Every circumstance (1) that might make 
a mortal sin of a venial one ; or (2) that might 
change a mortal sin into one of a different kind ; 
for example, a theft into a sacrilege." 

The Council of Trent declared, "Whosoever 
shall deny that three acts are required in the pen- 
itent for the entire and perfect remission of sins, 
constituting the matter of sacrament of penance, 
viz.: Contrition, confession and satisfaction, 
which are called the parts of penance: let him be 
accursed. . . . Whoever shall say that the 
mode of secretly confessing to a priest alone, 
which the Catholic Church has always observed 
from the beginning and still observes, is foreign 



The Auricular Confession. 51 

to the institution and command of Christ, and 
is a human invention: let him be accursed. 
Whoever shall say that the confession of a penitent 
is not requisite in order that the priest may absolve 
him: let him be accursed. . . . Whoever shall 
say that priests who are living* in mortal sin do 
not possess the power of binding- and loosing 1 : let 
him be accursed." 

We have made quotations from the Catechism and 
the Council of Trent concerning- penance, that you 
may full}' understand the teaching's of the Roman 
Catholic Church upon this subject. 

A Form of Confession. 

* 'I confess to God the Father Almig-hty, to his 
only begotten Son Jesus Christ, and to God 
the Holy Ghost, before the whole company of 
heaven, and to you, my Father, that I have sinned 
exceedingly in thought, word and deed, by my 
fault, my own fault, m}- most grievous fault. ,, Then 
follow the sins detailed. " For these sins, etc., I 
most humbly ask pardon of God, and of you, my 
ghostly Father, penance, counsel and absolution." 

Having heard the confession, and the necessary 
questions and examination being finished, the 
priest, according to Dens' Theology, will say, 
" 'May Almighty God have mercy upon thee, and 
having remitted thy sins lead thee through to eter- 
nal life.' Then raising his hands toward the pen- 
itent, let him say: 'May the Almighty and Mer- 
c ; ful Lord give to thee the indulgence, absolution, 
and remission of thy sins. Amen. May our Lord 
Jesus Christ absolve thee, and I by His authority 



52 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

loose thee from every bond of excommunication 
and interdict in so far as I am able and thou hast 
need."' Then follows the sacramental absolution: 
" I absolve thee from thy sins in the name of the 
Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen." 
I quote from Dens' Theology, a work prepared for 
Rome's seminaries and students of theology. 

How Often the Confession may be made. 
According- to a decree of a Lateran Council, 
" Every one of the faithful of both sexes, after he 
or she shall reach the years of discretion, must 
faithfully confess all of his or her sins alone at 
least once a year to the proper priest." This de- 
cree the Council of Trent confirmed, and it is com- 
monly recited among* the five common precepts of 
the Church. Peter Dens says : "Penance may be 
repeated till seventy times seven, that is, as often 
as the sinner sins and repents." It is pretty gen- 
erally known that there are many Roman Cath- 
olics who g"o to the confessional many times every 
year. Women g-o more frequently than men. 
There are Catholic men who never gx> to confession. 
But they are, if possible, still greater slaves to 
Rome. They expect to have the- priest to forgive 
them on their death-beds, and if they give him 
plenty of money he will say masses for them; con- 
sequently many neglect the confession and abso- 
lution till death. 

The Confessor must Question the Penitent. 
Mr. Dens says : "If the priest observes that the 
penitent is silent from shame or fear it is proper to 



The Auricular Confession. 53 

begin the interrogations from the greater, by pro- 
posing- to the same the question, whether he has 
committed homicide, or adultery, or a sacrilegious 
theft, and so forth. And lest the confessor 
should be embarrassed in confessing the circum- 
stances of any sin let him have this little line of 
circumstances in readiness: 'Who, what, where, 
by what helps, why, how, when.'" Mr. Dens then 
explains what may be denoted by each of these 
questions. He also gives models for examining 
the penitent concerning truth, justice, profanity, 
blasphemy, drunkenness, slander, theft, immodest 
thoughts, etc. It would be interesting, perhaps, 
to some of you to have me read from Dens the 
questions concerning immodest thoughts, but the 
laws of propriety require me to keep silent. 

An ex-priest made a public statement regarding 
these questions: 

" I had to learn by heart the infamous questions 
which the Church of Rome forces every priest to 
learn. I had to put those impure, immoral ques- 
tions to old and young females who were confess- 
ing their sins to me. These questions are of such 
a nature that no prostitute would put them to 
another. These questions and the answers thev 
elicit are so debasing that no man except a priest 
of Rome is sufficiently lost to every sense of shame 
as to put them to any woman." 

These questions are of such a character that it is 
a crime in this country to print them in the Eng- 
lish language. A printer in England was recently 
sent to jail for having published them in English. 
Now I would ask, if it is a crime, punishable by 



54 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

law, to print these questions in a book, should it not 
be made a crime, of severer punishment, to present 
them to married and unmarried women through the 
auricular confession ? But no, the evil questioning- 
continues. The priest induces her to let him search 
every corner of her heart, ransack her inmost soul, 
invade the sacred recesses of her thoughts and ask 
about all kinds of contaminations, secrets, impuri- 
ties and unspeakable matters. These sins are to be 
confessed to the priest in minute detail with, all the 
attending circumstances which may aggravate or 
palliate the offense. For, says the Council : 

" It is plain that the priests cannot sustain the 
office of judge if the cause be unknown to them, or 
inflict equitable punishments if sins. are only con- 
fessed in general and not minutely and individually 
described. For this reason, it follows the peni- 
tents are bound to rehearse in confession all mortal 
sins, even though they be of the most secret kinds." 

Here women conf>ss against their husbands ; here 
personal secrets, family secrets, and business secrets 
are confessed ; here the unprotected girlie thrown into 
the power of the priest and examined on all the sins 
she may ignore ; here she is introduced to senti- 
ments of shame, disgust and infamies which are 
ignored in every respectable home ; here little 
children with pure hearts are made to blush at 
the nauseating and unclean questions asked them. 
A little boy who had been to his first confession 
said, "I have been in the company of bad bo} T s, 
but not one of them said so many bad things to me 
as the priest." It is not difficult to prove that the 
confessional has polluted many a young girl's 




The Confessional. 



Copyright, 1895. 



56 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

thoughts, heart, and life. Miss Eliza Richardson 
said of her first confession, '* The memory of that 
time will ever be painful and abhorrent to me, 
though subsequent experience has thrown even that 
into the background. It was my first lesson upon 
a subject which ought never to enter into the 
imagination of girlhood ; my introduction into a 
region which ought never to be approached by the 
guileless and the pure." 

I have in my possession and have examined their 
standard theologies. Paul says it is a shame to 
speak of certain things that were done among the 
Gentiles, but it is a greater shame to think of some 
of the topics discussed by Roman theologians. 
The priest is compelled to study and propound ques- 
tions which are enough to make the hair of one's 
head stand straight. There is nothing connected 
with the matrimonial state, nothing sacred or secret 
in married life, which is not made a subject of his 
study and impudent inquiry. 

M. S. Cusack, for } r ears familiar with their liter- 
ature, says : 

"The demoralizing effect on their minds may 
well be conceived. A great deal has been said 
about immoral literature, but there is no literature 
so immoral as that which the Roman Catholic 
student is compelled to study day after day, as a 
preparation for his ministry." 

The Object of the Confessional 
Is not the recital of pure and holy thoughts, pur- 
poses, plans, and deeds, but the confession of wick- 
ed thoughts, unholy desires, and criminal acts. 



The Auricular Confession. 57 

Its immoral character is proverbial. It forms a 
dark and terrble history. Its evils are numerous 
and most appalling*. Some of the demoralizing- re- 
suits of the confessional will next claim our atten- 
tion. 

The Evils and Results of the Confessional. 

These are many. We shall not discuss all of 
them. Its tendency is to make the forgiveness of 
sins a business transaction. If a man can obtain 
forgiveness so easily he is encouraged to continue 
in sin ; he has a license to sin ; if he has been 
drunk six times a week he can attend the confes- 
sional, receive absolution, and then run up a new 
score with his priest. 

The confessional is an easy way of making 
sure (?) of heaven ; no matter what the life has 
been, if on the death-bed he will send for the priest 
he may receive absolution. It places the man's 
salvation in the hands of the priest. It teaches a 
man to look for safety where there is no safety, 
and to cry "Peace" where there is no peace. 

The Confessional is a Pitfall for the Priests. 
The priest is an unmarried man. He is a man 
of like passions with others. Considering, then, 
the literature he has to stud}% the questions he has 
to propound, and the temptations he has to meet, 
can it be otherwise, so long as human nature is 
what it is, than that gross immorality must result 
from the auricular confession? Who can read about 
the confessional and the celibacy of the clergy 
without being impressed with their adaptability 



58 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

for purposes of seduction? Into the ears and heart 
of the parish priest is poured the moral filth of the 
community. What tales of woe, what stories of 
scandal, what recitals of immoral thoughts, what 
histories of immodest actions, and what scanda- 
lous secrets must he hear ! 

It must fill his memory and heart with all un- 
cleanness. The effect must be most degrading*. 
He must listen to the secret thoughts and desires of 
lovely virgins, charming* widows and fascinating* 
wives. And were he as holy as the Psalmist 
David, it is natural for him to fall before the un- 
chaste unveiling* of Bathsheba. Were he as strong* 
as Samson, may he not find in these tempting* 
women a Delilah? Were he as devoted as Peter, is 
it not possible for him to betray his Master at the 
maid-servant's voice? 

Who will believe that the priests of Rome are 
stronger in virtue than David or Samson? Who 
will believe that the priest is able to stand amid 
similar temptations that prostrated the holy g*iants 
of the Lord's army? Who will believe that the 
priest is able to resist the temptations that daily 
surround the confessional? Who will believe he 
will refuse these g*olden opportunities to satisfy 
the irresistible propensities of his fallen nature? 
To be proof ag*ainst these seductive influences he 
must be as pure as an ang*el. But, alas ! they are 
earthen vessels, and the majority of them yield to 
the overmastering* temptations which beset them. 

Mr, Chiniquy, an ex-priest of g*ood authority, 
says : " Those who have escaped the snares of the 







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After Confession. 



Copyright, 1895. 



60 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

tempter are few compared with those who have 
perished. I have heard the confessions of more 
than two hundred priests, and to say the truth, as 
God knows it, I must declare that only twenty-one 
had not to weep over the secret sins committed 
through the irresistibly corrupting - influences of 
auricular confession. I am now more than seventy- 
seven years old, and in a short time I shall be in 
my grave. I shall have to give an account of what 
I now say. Well, it is in the presence of my Great 
Judge, with my tomb before my eyes, that I declare 
to the world that very few — yes, very few — priests 
escape from falling into the pit of the most horrible 
moral depravity the world has ever known, through 
the confession of females." 

Let it not be supposed that I am so prejudiced 
against Romish priests as to believe that they are 
a worse set of men than the rest of Adam's chil- 
dren. I do not entertain any such views. Let any 
class of men, merchants, ministers, lawyers, or 
farmers, be kept from living with lawful wives, and 
surround them from morning till night with from 
ten to twenty lovely women and tempting girls, 
who would speak to them on subjects which are 
only permissible between husbands and their wives, 
and very few of them would come out of the conflict 
without being mortally wounded. It is therefore 
not the fault of the priests so much as // is the fault 
of the demoralizing system It is a system which teaches 
things, the remembrance of which, must make us 
blush with shame. It is a system that exposes a 
man to temptations the most dark and dangerous. 
It is a system that leads a man into fornication. It 
is a system that has degraded thousands of priests 



The Aueicular Confession. 61 

and led them into the gravest of crimes, a sufficient 
number of which have been exposed to fill volumes, 
and to bring- upon the confessional the most scath- 
ing - denunciations and to justify the abolishing- of 
the Roman Catholic Church. And what shall we 
say of the woman ? O purity and modesty ! O 
womanly feeling- ! throug-h what a dang-erous 
ordeal art thou called to pass ! 

The Confessional is a Pitfall for Women. 

1. // Teaches Women to Lie. — There are millions 
of Roman Catholic girls and women who have such 
a keen sense of propriety and dig-nity as to lift 
them above the machinations of the confessors. 
They will not answer "yes." They would rather 
enter perdition than to permit the priests to pry 
into the sacred secrets of their souls. The laws of 
modesty and decency are strong-er in their hearts 
than the sophisms of their cruel church. There is 
no consideration that can persuade many of them 
to reveal secrets and divulg-e sins to a sinful man 
which God alone has the rig-ht to know and which 
His Son alone can forgive. Upon this subject a 
priest who spent fifty years in Rome has said : 
"Not hundreds but thousands of times, I have 
heard from the lips of dying girls as well as of 
married women, the awful words : ' I am forever 
lost. All my past confessions and communions 
have been so many lies. I have never dared to 
answer correctly the questions of my confessors. 
Shame has sealed my lips and damned my soul.' " 

2. // is the Cause of much Distress of Mind. — No 



62 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

words can tell the distress of mind and anguish of 
soul of a woman when at the feet of her confessor 
she finds herself obliged to speak of things on 
which she would prefer death rather than confes- 
sion. Many of them would rather be lost than to 
lose their self-respect in speaking of unmentionable 
things to the priest. We are told, in the books 
written by ex-nuns, of how the cold sweat poured 
from their pores, and the anguish of mind they ex- 
perienced in approaching the confessional-box, 
and how many times they failed to confess all, and 
consequently had to leave unpardoned by the priest 
and with a heavy burden upon their conscience. 
Chiniquy says : " I do here publicly challenge the 
whole Roman Catholic priesthood to deny that the 
greater part of their female penitents remain a 
certain period of time under the most distressing 
state of mind." 

3. 77 Lads to I?nmorality and Crime — We have just 
proven that the majority of the priests are accused 
of gross immorality. It therefore follows that 
their accomplices are guilty of the same. On page 
sixty-three of " The Priest, Woman and Confes- 
sional," we are told of the confession of a dying 
priest who on his death-bed stated that he had 
destroyed or scandalized at least one thousand 
women. It cannot be otherwise than that crime 
must follow the system, and particularly those who 
are initiated into the secret order of the " Blessed 
Creatures, who swear implicit obedience to all 
priests, especially to him who shall be her pastor, 
and if she is a married woman she promises to be 



The Auricular Confession. 63 

faithful to the priest, if he is a member of the same 
order, and to consider him and serve him in all 
things as her only true and lawful husband." 

In order that we may give some more* convincing- 
proof of the corrupting" influences of the confes- 
sional, let us quote upon this subject from some of 
their standard authors, and let them stand con- 
demned out of their own mouths. Lig*uori says 
(Smith's S}-nopsis, p. 346): "The lady superior 
shall watch a priest while he confesses a nun." 
Why? "For the sake of decency and safety." 
Why ? " Because a g-ood priest is very rare. Among- 
the priests who live in the world it is rare and 
very rare to find an} 7 that are g-ood." 

Let all serious thinkers read Dens 1 and Lig*uori's 
Theolog-ies. Read the encyclicals of the Piuses 
and the Greg-orys and many other Popes, and } 7 ou 
will see that confessors have as many women to 
serve them as had Brig-ham Young-, the Mormon 
prophet. Read the personal experiences of Miss 
Cusack, Edith O'Gorman, and Miss Caracciolo, 
who are still living-, and who have had years of 
experience in and out of convents, and you will 
learn that the confessional-box is the witness of 
immorality and crime that is a stench in the nos- 
trils of all decent men and women. 

There have been hundreds of priests and laymen 
who have escaped the meshes and servitude of 
Rome, and they will tell you that the confessional 
is a pit of perdition and the home of iniquity. Studv 
the history of Catholicism in Italy,* France, Spain, 

■■See Appendix No. 3. 



64 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Austria, Mexico, England and free America, and 
you will see that the searching* historian has found 
vice and crime in the confessional-box. 

It is Blasphemy Against God. 

To forgive sins is God's prerogative. " It is he 
that forgiveth all thine iniquities." "In me there 
is redemption, even the forgiveness of sins." This 
power God never delegated to any priest. It is de- 
grading to human nature to find men and women 
of general intelligence bow down to a priest and 
breathe into his ear a confession which should be 
made to God alone. It is absurd for sinful priests, 
murderers, and whoremongers, to claim to dispense 
the grace of God and thereby make God a sharer in 
their sins. The priest literally sits in the temple 
as God and assumes God's prerogative, and acts 
as a spiritual judge equal to Christ. This is the 
arrogant claim of every priest who professes to 
absolve the sins of his fellow-creatures. It seems 
almost inconceivable that any mortal would ven- 
ture thus far, and above all, it seems inconceivable 
that men and women would surrender their liber- 
ties and prostrate themselves at the feet of a priest 
and recognize his blasphemous assumption to ab- 
solve their sins. Fatal delusion ! Base blasphemy ! 
False idea that a paltry penance imposed by the 
priest would blot out of the book of God's remem- 
brance the sins of a contrite heart ! 

The Confessional is not God's Plan of Sal- 
vation. 

In the Old Testament we read of nothing like au- 



The Auricular Confession. 65 

ricular confession or priestly absolution. There 
were no confessionals in the temple of Solomon. 
The proud and presumptuous Pharisees never pre- 
sumed to absolve sins ; when Jesus forgave a man 
his sins they exclaimed, "Why does this man speak 
blasphemies? Who can forg-ive sins but God only?" 
David said to the Lord, " Against thee only have I 
sinned and done this evil in thy sig-ht. I confess 
my sins unto thee and mine iniquities have I not 
hid." "I said, I will confess mine transgressions 
unto the Lord ; and thou forg-avest the iniquity of 
my sin." 

Isaiah says : " Let the wicked forsake his way, 
arid the unrig-hteous man his thoug-hts : and let 
him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy 
upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly 
pardon." The Lord speaks throug-h His prophet 
Isaiah (first chapter), saying-, "Come now, and let 
us reason tog-ether, saith the Lord : thoug-h your 
sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; 
thoug-h they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
wool." Here are the words of the Lord as written 
in the Old Testament. Here are the landmarks of 
His mercy. No priest in olden times dared to re- 
move them to put others in their place. 

In the New Testament there is no command to 
Christians to confess to priests with a view of ob- 
taining- absolution ; neither is there one example 
of confession heard and absolution granted by an} r 
apostle or evang-elist. The plan of salvation as 
g-iven by Jesus Christ is a simple one, so plain that 
"a wayfaring- man, thoug-h a fool, need not err 



66 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

therein." In the great commission He said : "Go 
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved ; and he that believeth not shall be 
damned." The Saviour here says nothing- about 
auricular confession. It would have been impossi- 
ble to have given plainer instructions to the apostles. 

When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, 
he said to the believing- Jews who cried out " What 
must we do?" "Repent, and be baptized every one 
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remis- 
sion of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the 
Holy Ghost " No command to confess sins to any 
man for the purpose of obtaining- absolution. 

And when Simon Magus, after he had been 
baptized, committed a grievous sin, Peter directed 
him as follows: "Repent therefore of this thy 
wickedness, and pray God, if perliaps the thought 
of thine heart may be forgiven thee." Peter did 
not direct him to confess his sins to a priest in 
order to obtain absolution. 

In the First Epistle of John we read : "If we 
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive 
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteous- 
ness." This is the languag-e of the beloved dis- 
ciple, and he directs us to confess our sins to God. 
It is from God alone that we can receive pardon. 

In the sixteen letters of the Apostle Paul he 
speaks of all the duties imposed upon the human 
conscience and gives minute instructions in regard 
to our duties, but not one word does he say about 
auricular confession. 



The Auricular Confession. 67 

James says : ''Confess your faults one to another, 
and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." 
Roman writers need not rely upon this to support 
the doctrine of auricular confession, for James says 
to "confess them one to another." He does not 
require a confession to a priest. If we have 
offended one another we should confess our faults 
to one another, and pray one for the other that we 
may be forgiven, as Jesus taught, " If ye forgive 
men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will 
also forg-ive } t ou : But if you forg-ive not men their 
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your 
trespasses." 

I believe, then, in these two confessions of sins : 
First, to God, and implore His forgiveness; second, 
to an}^one with whom we have a disagreement, 
that peace and harmony may be restored. These 
two confessions are taught in the Scriptures, but 
nowhere in God's holy Word do we find any com- 
mand, example, or inference of the auricular con- 
fession. 

The apostles never built a confessional-box, 
heard confessions, nor absolved the sinner in the 
way that Rome does. The miraculous gifts they 
possessed they never delegated to any successor. 
They preached faith, reformation and obedience to 
our Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins ; and 
after the baptized believer had sinned, they instruct- 
ed him to confess his sins to God, who is just and 
faithful to cleanse him from all unrighteousness. 



68 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Nothing about the Auricular Confession in the Writings 
of the Primitive Fathers — Their writings cover every 
rule of faith and practice in the Church, and they 
make not a single allusion to the confessional. In 
Deacon Pontius's Life of Cyprian, who lived in the 
third century, he says not a word about his confes- 
sing - his sins to any one, or any one having - g-one to 
him for the same purpose. In the life of St. 
Ambrose, of the fourth century, not one word is 
said about the confessional. In the life, suffering's 
and death of Chrysostom, who died in the early 
part of the fifth century, there is nothing - about 
this dog"ma. The learned and eloquent St. Jerome, 
of the fifth century, wrote many admirable letters, 
in all five volumes. He writes of the manners, 
habits, views, morality, doctrine and practical faith 
of the first five centuries of the Church, and he 
has not one word to say about the auricular con- 
fession. In his life of St. Paulina he never says 
one word about her sitting - in a dark corner with 
her confessor revealing - her inmost thoughts, 
desires, or human frailties. St. Aug'ustine has 
written an admirable book called " Confessions." 
In this we find his autobiography. We follow him, 
step by step, but we never follow him to the con- 
fessional. But he does say : "I shall confess my 
sins to God, and he will pardon all my iniquities." 
These fathers taught, ag"ain and ag-ain, to confess 
our sins to God and to God alone, who will hear 
from heaven. Had auricular confession been 
practiced then, would they not have mentioned it ? 
It was not necessary then, and it is not necessary 



The Auricular Confession. 69 

now. It was not taught by Christ and his apostles, 
and it is blasphemy for any priest or Pope to 
impose it upon the Church as a dogma to-day. 
Before closing* I desire to say 

A Word to Catholic Women. 

Do you not know that the confessional is a snare 
to you, a pit of perdition for your sister, and a 
Sodom for the priest ? Have you not had to blush 
on account of questions that have been asked you 
in the confessional-box ? Have you not had to 
weep over the shameful and degrading- temptations, 
and not infrequently the loss of the virtue of your 
sisters ? Are you not aware of the fact that you 
make the priest your accomplice when you tell him 
of your iniquities ? Is he not a man ? Is he not 
as weak as you ? Do you not know that what tempts 
vou will tempt him, and what will pollute you will 
pollute him, and what will destroy your purity will 
destroy his? If you could hear the priest's wail 
of woe over the demoralizing- effects of the con- 
fessional-box you would never go there again. Is 
it not your duty, as well as your privilege and 
honor, in time of distress, to go to your husbands 
and to your God for advice and counsel ? Is it not 
your duty to confess your sins to God, and to God 
alone, and ask and receive His forgiveness ? O, 
will you not hear the words of Jesus, " Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and 
learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and 
ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is 



70 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

easy, and nry burden is light." Jesus does not 
direct you to go to the priest for rest, but says, 
"Come unto me, and I will give you rest." His 
yoke is easy, but the yoke of auricular confession 
is hard. Christ's burden is light, but the burden 
the priest has imposed upon you is heavy, humilia- 
ting", and degrading-. 

A Word to Catholic Husbands. 

I am persuaded that you do not know one-tenth 
of what is going on between the confessors and 
your wives and daughters. There are millions of 
honest men identified with Rome who neither know 
what is going on in the heart nor the imagina- 
tion of the women in their own homes. What 
must be the life of a priest surrounded with 
lovable women and attractive girls who speak to 
him from morning till night upon things which 
man cannot hear without falling ? Has the priest 
the right to question your wives about the secrets 
of your lives and your homes? Is nDt the heart, 
soul, and purity of the wife precious in your eye ? 
Then look well to the temptations and indiscre- 
tions which beset them in the confessional. Do 
you not know that the confessional is the keyhole of 
your door through which the priest peeps into your 
house ? Do you not know that it is a fact that the 
priests have ruined man}^ women ? that they have 
taken the marrow and left the husband the bone ? 
they have taken the honey and left the husband 
the cell ? they have taken the heart and left the 
husband the skeleton ? Is it right for the wife to 



The Auricular Confession. 71 

have two men to love, respect and obey ? Is it 
right that she should reveal all her secrets to an- 
other man ? Is it right for the priest to ask. this 
and that of your wife in your absence ? Is it just 
and decent for him to question your daughter upon 
all thoughts of pollution and infamy ? Have you 
not heard again and again of Catholic husbands 
who have made public the power of the priest over 
their wives and told how the priest was everything 
to them, and their husbands nothing, and what an 
effort it was to destroy that power in their homes ? 
Do you not know that the principal cause of Ire- 
land's degradation and poverty is the enslaving of 
the Irish women by means of the confessional ? If 
you will seriously reflect upon this subject, I feel 
assured that you will never suffer your wives and 
daughters to be trodden down by the priests. 
Hundreds of Catholic husbands have broken this 
power that bound the soul with chains of adamant 
and fettered every noble principle in the bosom of 
their companion ; I thank God that I was not nur- 
tured in the lap of Rome, and I pray for you, my 
deluded brethren, that you may be rescued from its 
deadly influences. 

A Word to Protestants. 

The Pope has more than one hundred thousand 
priests who have the opportunity of corrupting the 
mind and hearts of the women of the world through 
the confessional. The priest hears an average of 
ten confessions a day ; this would make one 
million women who enter the confessional-box 



72 America or Home: Christ or the Pope. 

every day, and three hundred and sixty-five millions 
every year. What an avenue is the confessional to 
furnish information to the priest ! Here he may 
learn who are strong* and who are weak among* the 
females he questions ; here he may learn who 
would resist the enemy and who would yield to his 
temptations ; here the priest may learn not only 
the secrets of the Catholic families but the priva- 
cies of the Protestant families may be laid bare by 
the faithful Bridg*et, and the secrets of councils 
and business may be made known by Patrick. It 
has been wisely said, that there is nothing' worth 
knowing* as affecting* the Church, in families and 
societies and nations, that is not in possession of 
the confessional bureau of Rome. 

The priests and bishops know more of men and 
their movements through the confessional than 
any other class of men. It is not only a source of 
knowledge but it is one of the main corner-stones 
of their stupendous power ; it is one of the secrets 
of their almost irresistible influence ; it is the most 
tremendous tribunal ever invented, compared to 
which the pulpit, bench, and rostrum as thrones of 
power are insig-nificant. The pulpit is of little use 
except to harang*ue ag*ainst heresy and direct 
political votes. But in the confessional, the con- 
science, the heart, the life, the family, the business, 
the school, the society, the politics are all broug*ht 
under their dominion. The priests understand 
this ; hence their efforts to deceive the people ; 
hence their zeal and earnestness to maintain the 
confessional ; hence the misrepresentations of the 



The Auricular Confession. 73 

Scriptures ; hence the egregious falsehoods about 
the perpetual miracles which God makes to main- 
tain the purities of the confessional undefiled 
and its secrets marvelously sealed. O Protest- 
ants ! are not the facts which I have told you in 
this discourse as lamentable as they are undenia- 
ble? Is it not a fact that our women are to society 
what the roots are to the trees of the orchard ? If 
the root is diseased the leaves will soon fade and 
the unripe fruit will fall to the ground. Is it not 
our duty to heal this disease that is debasing- and 
contaminating" our society ? We owe protection 
and respect to our women. It is our duty to lift 
our fallen neig-hbor out of the pit. If Spain and 
Mexico are fair examples of the work of auricular 
confession, let us beware ! Liberty and the auric- 
ular confession cannot stand side by- side — one or 
the other must fall. Liberty must sweep away the 
confessional, or the confessional will sweep away 
Liberty. The latter must not be, the former then 
shall be ! 

O Protestants ! } T ou who love liberty, develop- 
ment and Christianity, I appeal to you as the peo- 
ple of the Lord and as the true soldiers of the 
Christ. I appeal to you who have lived under the 
stars and stripes, and who have sung* the songs of 
liberty, to stand up and rally around the banners 
of your countr}*, and around the banners of the 
cross of Christ. Let every trumpet of Protestant- 
ism be sounded around the walls of the confession- 
al ! Let your lig"ht shine ! Let the truth be known ! 
Let liberty be proclaimed from every hilltop and 



74 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

tower ! Let fervent prayers ascend to the throne 
of mercy ! Let your cry of indignation be heard 
throughout the land against this monstrous impo- 
sition of the dark ages ! Let the confessional be 
exposed until its existence will no more imperil the 
existence of society ! Let us win the multitudes 
that have been kept captive by it ! Let us lead 
them out of bondage into liberty ! Let us lead them 
out of darkness into light ! Let us lead them to 
Christ, who will wash their robes and make them 
whiter than snow ! 



THE CELIBACY OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 



Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some 
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing- spirits, and doc- 
trines of devils ; speaking - lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience 
seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain 
from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving 
of them which believe and know the truth. -I. Tim. iv. 1-3. 

The time is at hand when the "mystery of ini- 
quity" should be revealed arid the secret doing's of 
the priests should be uncovered. " And then shall 
that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall 
consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall 
destroy with the brightness of his coming - ." The 
mystery is, that these evils should be tolerated. 
When Wycliffe boldly exposed the iniquities of the 
priests and monks, the people cried out against 
disturbing so much shame ; and to-day some may 
cry out, but the iniquity is there and should be 
exposed. The infinite scandals have continued for 
centuries, and it is time that every Protestant 
minister is doing something to lift the veil that 
obscures the darkness. 

To tell the truth, is not slander. To slander is 
to injure by speaking both falsely and maliciously. 
To tell the truth for the good of humanity is the 
opposite of slander. 

(76) 



The Celibacy of the Priesthood. 77 

Samuel spoke against the sins of Saul ; Elijah 
told Ahab that he was troubling - Israel ; Daniel 
told Belshazzar that he was weighed in the balance 
and found warrting ; John, the Baptist, told Herod 
that it was unlawful for him to have his brother 
Philip's wife ; Paul reasoned on righteousness, 
temperance and judgment to come, before King 
Agrippa ; John Knox made the ruler of Scotland 
blush for shame ; Martin Luther withstood Popes, 
Cardinals and Bishops ; Calvin told the priests that 
they had become so polluted by their celibacy that 
they were hardened to every crime. My heavenly 
Father has said : "I have made thee a watchman 
unto the house of Israel : therefore hear the word 
at nry mouth, and give them warning" from me. 
When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely 
die ; and thou givest him not warning-, nor speakest 
to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save 
his life ; the same wicked man shall die in his 
iniquity ; but his blood will I require at thine 
hand." 

Shall we let the wicked die without warning 
them ? Shall we incur our own peril by not per- 
forming- our duty ? Protestants and many good 
Catholics are ig-norant of the teachings and prac- 
tices of the priests and nuns. It is our purpose in 
the sight of God to speak out the truth upon the 
celibacy of the priests and its dreadful consequences. 
The celibacy of the clergy has for centuries been 
a dogma of Romanism. The Church imposes a 
universal celibacy on all her clergy, from the Pope 
down to the priest and lowest deacon. This insti- 



78 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

tutioti is considered a sacrament. The Council of 
Trent declares this institution one of the sacra- 
ments by which all real rig-hteousness is beg-un and 
augmented. The same is taught, in the Trent 
Catechism, which is approved by Pope Pius. The 
Council of Toledo decreed ag-ainst the priest who 
should marry, the penalties of deposition, perpetual 
punishment, fasting 1 upon bread and water during- 
life, and bloody stripes besides. Other Councils 
prohibited females from marrying* priests, con- 
demning - even those who were suspected of that 
intention, to have their hair cut off and sold and the 
price given to the poor. Other Councils excluded 
the sons of priests from ordination ; declared them 
illegitimate and incapable of holding- property ; 
confiscated their g-oods and condemned them to 
servitude. Another Council prohibited the laity 
from hearing- masses said by married priests, and 
finally a General Council decided to withhold from 
the clerg-y a part of their income if they married. 
But as this dog-ma is g-enerally known, further cita- 
tions of their teaching-s are unnecessary. 

Alleged Reasons for Imposing Celibacy on the 

Clergy. 

These are numerous. The trials and oblig-ations 
of married life are exag-g-erated, and the joys, 
peace, and privileg-es of celibacy are depicted in 
brilliant colors. Numerous Scriptural texts are 
twisted, misinterpreted and quoted to support celib- 
acy. For instance, Peter said to his Saviour : 
"Behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee." 



The Celibacy of the Priesthood. 79 

The advocates of celibacy claim he must have for- 
saken his wife, but the Scriptures do not say that 
he had taken a vow of celibacy and that he had 
forsaken his wife. Peter evidently meant that 
Jesus occupied the first place in his affections — 
that dearest objects on earth, father,. mother, wife, 
were second in his mind and heart. He did not 
forsake his wife, for years afterward he was travel- 
ing* in compan}' with her. 

Another passage they quote to support celibacy : 
" They neither marry nor are given in marriage " ; 
and as this refers to the angels, the priests by not 
marrying teach they will be raised to the dignity 
of an angel. But this text has nothing to do with 
the subject. Jesus was speaking of the resurrec- 
tion day, when we would neither marry nor be 
given in marriage, but be as the angels of God. 
Jesus does speak of the state of celibacy, but 
that state is beyond the grave. 

And still another passage from Paul's writings : 
14 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, 
as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of 
the Lord and Cephas ?" In the Catholic Bible the 
word ''wife" is translated "woman," and they 
teach that the apostles had women traveling with 
them to serve them, to mend their clothes, to 
prepare their meals, like the housekeepers for the 
priests to-day. But the fact is, the Roman Catho- 
lics have erred in their translation. Paul simply 
stated that he had a right to have a wife as well as 
the other brethren and Peter. 

They claim that celibacy is necessan r on the part 



80 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope 

of the priest to keep him chaste and pure ; that vow, 
they claim, will keep him above the filth and cor- 
ruptions of the earth and be a most efficacious 
remedy against the inclinations of his corrupt na- 
ture. But the Bible, on the other hand, declares 
marriage to be the remedy. " To avoid fornication, 
let every man have his own wife, and let every 
woman have her own husband.' 1 

The reason for celibacy at first may have been a 
superstitious zeal for a sanctimonious appearance 
in the clergy ; but this nail was soon clinched by a 
crafty policy to promote the power of the Pope. 
Says Mr. Edgar, in his "Variations of Popery, " 
" A third reason for the injunction of celibacy arose 
from pontifical policy. Cardinal Rodolf, arguing 
in favor of clerical celibacy, affirmed that the 
priesthood, if allowed to marry, would transfer 
their attachment from the Pope to their family and 
prince, and this would tend to the injury of the 
ecclesiastical community. The Holy See would, 
by this means, be soon limited to the Roman City." 

A man who takes the vow of celibacy, and has 
no ties to his home and country, is the slave of his 
superior ; it brings him to a total dependence upon 
the authority of the Pope ; it places temporal power 
in a high degree under papal jurisdiction ; they 
look to the rulers of their Church as the power and 
source of advancement and punishment. Hence, 
the unhappy state of their slavish submission. Mr. 
Chiniquy has tersely put it : " The Pope takes his 
victim to the top of a high mountain, and there 
shows him all the honors, praise, wealth, peace, 



The Celibacy of the Priesthood. SI 

and joy of this world, united to the most glorious 
throne in heaven, and then tells him : w I will give 
you all these things if you will fall at my feet, 
promise me an absolute submission, and swear 
never to marry in order to serve me better. "' 

The Origin of Clerical Celibacy. 

It originated about the commencement of the 
fourth century, but did not become a regulation of 
discipline until after the eleventh century. It was 
first enjoined at Rome, by Gregory VII., 1073, and 
was established in England, by Archbishop Anselm 
in the year 1175. The character of Pope Gregory 
has been outlined by many pens. He had extensive 
knowledge, and great ability to rule men. He en- 
forced celibacy with a high hand among the clergy, 
and was supported by many of the laity. The Coun- 
cil of Trent finally decreed : "Whoever shall say 
that the clergy constituted in sacred order, or reg- 
ulars, who have solemnly professed chastity, may 
contract marriage and that the contract is valid: let 
him be accursed. . . . Whoever shall say that 
the marriage state is to be preferred to the state of 
virginity, or celibac}', and that it is not better and 
more blessed to retain virginity, or celibacy, than 
to be joined in marriage: let him be accursed " 

The advocates of Romanism differ on the ques- 
tion whether celibacy be divine, or human, or even 
useful. One party believes the prohibition to be 
of divine appointment, and take it to be a matter 
of divine faith and moral obligation. A second 
party believes it to be a human institution, and 



82 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

capable of being" altered or repealed by human au- 
thority. A third party believes it to be both use- 
less and hurtful, and have offered to it a powerful 
and persevering" opposition. 

When the edict was enforced it met with tierce 
opposition in Italy, England and other countries. 
Many of the priests resisted the decrees command- 
ing" them to break up their homes and permitting 
their wives to be called harlots and their children 
bastards. Who can depict the ang-uish of heart 
when husbands were compelled to separate from 
wives, and fathers from their children, in opposi- 
tion both to Scripture, reason, and nature. No 
wonder that many wives died from grief, others 
committed suicide, and others foug"ht for their 
rig"hts. 

We have spoken of the alleg-ed reasons and ori- 
gin of clerical celibacy ; let us next consider some 
of the results. 

1. Domesticism. — This consisted in keeping" inmates 
or housekeepers in the priests' dwelling's. It was 
their apparent duty to superintend the domestic 
concerns of the house. The priests enjoyed their 
society, and they in turn shared their sorrows and 
joys. Cyprian condemns, in strong" language, their 
domestic familiarity by day and their behavior by 
night. Jerome had no very high idea of their pu- 
rity. He speaks of their desiring spiritual consola- 
tion that had relation to the flesh. The clergy 
and their housekeepers, according to authors in ev- 
ery century of its existence, occupied the same 
house and the same chamber. The housekeeper's 



The Celibacy of the Priesthood. 83 

attention seemed to be more engaged upon dress 
and rings and perfumery than housekeeping. Do- 
mesticism is still quite common. Mr. Chiniquy 
tells us of a priest in Canada who went so far as 
to have a domestic in the way of a beautiful girl 
attired in boy's clothing to serve him by day and 
by night. 

2. Concubinage. — This was a natural result of 
celibacy. The accounts on this subject recorded 
by faithful historians are most appalling. Their 
own bishops represent the clergy as guilty of 
bigamy, drunkenness and licentiousness. Atto 
tells us that many of the clergy kept bad women 
in their houses, and these bad women managed 
the priests' households and at death inherited their 
property. Damian represents the guilty mistress 
confessing to the guilty priest. Imagine the for- 
mality of confessing what the father confessor 
knew and receiving forgiveness from a partner in 
sin. The fair penitent had not far to go for abso- 
lution. We could bring a cloud of witnesses to 
show that celibacy has made the priests an unchaste 
set of men. We could bring their own theologians, 
bishops and authors, as well as the most authentic 
historians of the world. It would not be difficult 
to prove that Roman Pontiffs winked at these im- 
moralities. Rev. E. H. Walsh, who, for years, was 
a monk in Kentucky, says : "I have known priests 
to spend Sundays in card-playing and drinking in 
company with young women. My own family 
flung into my face the profligate lives of priests 
who visited hotels in their control in company with 



84 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

young - girls and remained until the small hours 
of the morning - ." The St. Louis Republican of June 
20, 1887, printed a letter from Bishop Hogan of the 
Catholic Diocese of St. Joseph, in which he states 
that the priests of his diocese were such a drunken 
lot that he was compelled to appoint some German 
priests over Irish congregations. He then gives a 
list of twenty-two priests that had been received 
into his diocese the fifteen years prior to 1876 
whom he was compelled to dismiss on account of 
immoralities. 

About the middle of this century, Bishop Vande- 
veld, of Chicago, said: kt I cannot any longer 
assume the responsibilities of such a high position, 
because it is beyond my power to fulfill my duties 
and do what the Church requires of me. The 
conduct of the priests of this diocese is such, that, 
should I follow the regulations of the canon, I 
would be forced to interdict all my priests with the 
exception of two or three. They are all either 
notorious drunkards, or given to public or secret 
concubinage. I do not think that ten of them 
believe in God. Religion is nothing to them but a 
well-paying comedy. t Where can I find a remedy 
for such a general evil ? Can I punish one of them 
and leave the others free in their abominable 
doings, when they are almost all equally guilty ? 
Would not the general interdiction of these priests 
be the death-blow to our Church in Illinois ? 
Besides how can I punish them, when I know that 
many of them are ready to poison me the very 
moment I raise a finger against them ?" 

It seems the Popes have enriched their coffers by 
fining the profligate clergy. Liguori says : "The 
Council of Trent has laid a fine upon those clergy- 



Thk Celibacy of the Priesthood. 85 

men who keep concubines." If the clergy marry 
they are excommunicated, but if they keep concu- 
bines they must pay a fine for it. This accounts 
for the custom in Spain, Cuba, and South America 
of priests having- concubines. 

3. Clandestine Marriages. — Some priests evaded 
the decree of celibacy by clandestine matrimony. 
They desired to keep a conscience, and their con- 
sciences recoiled at the thoug-ht of fornication. 
Hence they had recourse to the heaven-made insti- 
tution of marriag-e. They withstood the com- 
mandments of men and the canons of Councils. 
They continued to marry in spite of Church regu- 
lations. Gregory, and some of his successors, bit- 
terly opposed these priests, and separated them 
from their wives. I am told, by g-ood authority, 
that there are some priests to-day living" in clan- 
destine marriage, thus showing" the obstinacy of 
the clergy and the inefficacy and sin of the decree. 

4. The Nunnery. — I quote from the "Mysteries 
of the Neapolitan Convent" : "The fanatical pas- 
sions of the nuns for their confessors, priests, and 
monks, exceed belief. That which especially ren- 
ders their incarceration endurable is the illimitable 
opportunity they enjoy of seeing- and corresponding- 
with those persons with whom they are in love." 

If there is any place connected with Romanism 
that Protestants suppose is free from impurity and 
strife, it is the nunneries and convents ; but facts 
prove that many nunneries and convents are pits of 
perdition. Among-st the oaths taken by the nuns 
is one to obe) r the priest in all thing-s, and this 



86 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

most nuns know to their sorrow and shame. If 
nunneries arc a good thing-, Italy ought to know it. 
If Italy pronounces them a curse, her verdict ought 
to pass in other lands. Henrietta Caracciolo, of 
noble family, and of experience in a convent, has 
disclosed their mysteries to the world. She says : 
" The priests are the husbands of the nuns and 
the lay brothers of the lay sisters. Everywhere it 
is the same." Italy has been compelled to suppress 
her monasteries and nunneries. When this sup- 
pression began there were more than sixty thousand 
monks and nuns in her monasteries, convents and 
nunneries. A few years since, Germany was com- 
pelled to pass a law requiring the inspection of her 
convents four times a year by government inspect- 
ors. The convents were compelled to submit to 
this or disband. They preferred the latter course, 
and remained closed until Bismarck submitted to 
the Pope, and now they are again open. These 
nunneries are scattered throughout the world, and 
the high walls surrounding them have never been 
built high enough to keep out the priests. The 
priests, who are forbidden to marry, have access to 
these convents and nunneries. Again and again 
have the mysteries and iniquities of these nun- 
neries been exposed. Not long since a Kentucky 
monk denounced one of them to a visiting prelate 
as a " devilish place that ought to be torn down " 
Wm. Hogan declares : "The title of Christian land 
should not be given to this or any other county 
which permits the shelter of adulteries of this sort. 
Are the sons of freemen required to countenance 



The Celibacy of the Priesthood. 87 

and asked to build impassable walls around a lech- 
erous and profligate horde of foreign monks and 
priests who choose to come among- us and erect 
little fortifications which they call nunneries for 
their protection and gratification ?" Protestants 
have been very generous in giving liberal donations 
to Romanists to assist in building cathedrals, sem- 
inaries, nunneries, and other institutions where 
commandments of men are taught and where prac- 
tices of the vilest are in vogue. If Councils have 
been compelled to thunder their anathemas against 
priests and nuns for their wickedness, are we not 
justified in sa}4ng that nunneries are pious frauds ? 
5. Celibacy leads to Infanticide.— Luther, in his 
"Table Talks," says that in his time a pool was 
cleaned out in the vicinity of a convent and the bot- 
tom was almost literally paved with the bones of 
infants. Maria Monk, in "The Black Nunnery," 
tells us how the innocents were slaughtered : 

"The priests first put oil on the heads of the in- 
fants as is the custom before baptism. When he 
had baptized the children they were taken, one af- 
ter another, by one of the old nuns in the presence 
of all ; she then pressed her hand upon the mouth 
and nose so tight that it could not breathe and in 
a few minutes it was dead. The greatest indiffer- 
ence was shown by all present during this opera- 
tion, for the}' were accustomed to such scenes." 

Wm. Hogan declares : " That the strangling 
and putting to death of infants is a common every- 
day crime in popish nunneries." Maria Monk says 
the little ones were buried in a secluded place in 
the cellar, and covered with lime. Similar disclos- 



88 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

ures were made in Indianapolis, which appalled the 
whole community, and to which fact some of the 
older inhabitants of that city can to-day testify. 
And this is the result of the decree of celibacy, a 
decree established and enforced by the Holy Mother 
Church. 

6. Celibacy is the Cause of the Priests'* Bloated Appear- 
ance. — God traces their character by their looks. 
The Roman Catholic priest has a downcast look ; 
there is in his face the lack of frankness ; he has 
an unwillingness to look you in the eye ; there is 
an absence of cordiality in his greeting - . Their 
general appearance is the opposite or widely dif- 
ferent from the appearance of professors, doctors, 
lawyers, ministers, and all men who lead a life of 
thought. The bloated appearance of so many 
priests speak of the immorality within. Their 
physiognomy bears the mark and stamp of sin. 

7. Celibacy has led to the Establishing of the "Substitu- 
tion for Marriage" — This institution is described in 
a little book called "Substitution for Marriage." 
Pius IX., in thej^ear 1866, sanctioned the establish- 
ment of this most appalling institution of immo- 
rality. It bears different names, such as "Sacred 
Heart," "Compline Rosary," " B. C.'s," etc. A 
member of this order, who was wrecked by it, grew 
to hate it and to despise the priesthood, and gave 
her letters, badges, books, etc., into the hands of a 
trusted physician. Only the sound, healthy, and 
beautiful women are eligible to membership. A 
priest to be a member must have served in the 
priesthood for seven years. One principle of the 



The Celibacy of the Priesthood. 89 

membership is to deny the knowledge of the exis- 
tence of such a society. Many are the inducements 
held out by the priests for joining- this society, 
and great is the care they exercise in selecting- their 
members. The women on becoming- members 
swear implicit obedience to the priests of the same 
order, especially to their respective pastors. They 
are taug-ht to believe that the Church has by divine 
authority substituted this blessed institution to 
take the place of marriag-e. Great pomp and cere- 
mony are used during- the initiator}^ exercises to 
mystif j- and impress the victim. The members of 
the society are known by certain rings and wear- 
ing- apparel. The secrets of this institution have 
been exposed, its practices have been uncovered ; 
several of the books containing- its rituals are in 
safe keeping. It is simply one of the many results 
of celibacy — it shows its heinousness and sin. 

8. It Produces Public Immorality — We have shown 
that the transgression of the laws of marriag-e 
capacitates the priests for crime and immorality. 
Now, inasmuch as public morality is closely 
allied to religion, and in fact a part of it, and inas- 
much as the priests are the teachers of morals, 
there must be immorality in Catholic communities. 
The ministry of the priest is rendered useless 
because his conscience condemns his actions and 
his life is immoral. As a result, religion dies 
where Romanism thrives ; education is abandoned 
and ig-norance prevails ; purity decreases and vice 
takes the rein. For this reason, Romanism has 
eaten the life out of Mexico, Spain, the South 



90 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

American States, and other Romish countries. 
For this reason, the majority of the fallen women 
are Catholics. For this reason, crime is more 
frequent in Catholic than in Protestant countries. 
We have depicted some of the terrible results of 
celibacy, and proven that it has been violated from 
the time of its institution. We shall now show 
that it is opposed to nature, the home, the Scrip- 
tures and human wisdom. 

1. Celibacy is Opposed to Nature. 

Marriage is the natural state for man, and diffi- 
culties will arise in forcing- him into a state of celib- 
ac}\ God has made this law so strong- in man's 
nature that the direst results must fall upon him 
who breaks it. It is useless to enact a law that 
will be continually transgressed and perpetually 
despised. A law should never be enacted contrary 
to the nature of thing's. The law of celibacy is 
opposed to nature and public sentiment. Many 
good clergymen have made desperate efforts to 
obey this decree and hold in subjection their flesh 
and blood. Many of these good men lost much 
time which could have been spent in the discharge 
of important duties. Their efforts are sufficient to 
convince anyone of the naturalness of the law of mar- 
riage and the unnaturalness of the law of celibacy, 
and that men and women are the requisites of each 
other. Neither is complete until married. Each 
finds a likeness in the other. Each makes up 
what the other lacks. The man is strong, the 
woman is delicate. The man has brain power, the 



92 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

woman has love power. The man is intelligent, 
the woman sympathetic. Man does man's work, 
the woman does woman's work. Man protects the 
woman, and the woman encourages the man. Man 
supports the woman, and the woman cherishes the 
man. 

" As unto the bow the cord is, 
So unto the man is woman. 
Though she bends him, she obeys him : 
Though she draws him, yet she follows. 
Useless each, without the other." 

I will close this argument by stating that health, 
the foundation of happiness, is promoted by mar- 
riage. The average age of bachelors is 40, while 
that of married.men is 59}^. 

2. Celibacy is Opposed to the Home. 

It is through marriage that homes are formed 
and built up. What blesses the home, blesses 
everybody ; what curses the home, curses every- 
body. The priest not only has no home but he 
invades the homes of others, saps their foundations, 
blasts their hopes and poisons their atmospheres. 
Who dares to say that the evil communications 
learned in the confessional will not corrupt the 
good manners of the home ? A Catholic once said : 
" My wife talks to me about everything except 
religion, and when that subject is mentioned it 
seems that an invisible enemy is present to contra- 
dict us." He who has the ties of home enjoys a 
world of happiness ; they elevate a man, preserve 
his purity, and inspire him to patriotism. The 



94 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

home is the foundation of the purity and life of our 
nation, and he that despoils the home or lessens 
their numbers must be a most vital enemy of civili- 
zation. 

3. It is Opposed to Human Wisdom. 

a. It is a Heathenish Custom. — The heathens of 
old, upon becoming- priests, ceased to be men. The 
Romans, during- their profession of Gentilism, had 
their vestal virgins. The Athenian and Egyptian 
priesthood observed celibacy. Popery then follows 
the footsteps of heathenism. 

b. It is Opposed to the Wisdom and Writings of the 
Early Fathers. — They made no distinction in this 
respect between the clergy and the laity, but as- 
serted the lawfulness of marriag-e of all Christians. 
Celibacy is unknown in all the oldest monuments 
of the Church. No vestig-e of this prohibition is 
to be found during- the first three hundred years 
after Christ. During- all this period all the Chris- 
tian authors are silent on this theme. The apostles 
were followed by Hermas, Clement, Barnabas, 
Polycarp and Ig-natius. And these were succeeded 
by Justin, Irenaeus, Orig-en, Tertullian, Cyprian 
and others, but none of them mention any matri- 
monial restriction on the part of the clergy. On 
the contrary, many documents of antiquity speak 
of their unrestrained liberty to marry. Clement, 
who flourished about the year 200, says : "God al- 
lows ever) 7 man, whether priest, deacon or layman, 
to be the husband of one wife, and to use matri- 
mony without reprehension." 



The Celibacy of the Priesthood. 95 

c. C'libacy is Opposed to the Wisdom of Many Roman- 
ists. — Bernard says : ''Take away honorable wed- 
lock and }'ou will fill the church with fornication, 
incest, sodomy and all pollution." The Duke of 
Bavaria demonstrated the necessity of marriage to 
the Council of Trent, when he said that among 
fifty priests there would scarcely be found one that 
did not live in a state of notorious immorality ; 
that it was better to abrogate the law, than to open 
the door to impure celibacy ; that it was an ab- 
surdity to refuse married men an entrance into or- 
ders, and yet to tolerate the men who lived in im- 
morality. 

The Right Rev. A. A. Feijo, ex-regent of the 
Empire of Brazil, has written an admirable book 
in which he endeavors to urge the legislators to 
abolish the law of clerical celibacy in Brazil. Says 
the ex-regent and bishop : "All Brazil knows the 
necessity of abolishing a law that never was, is 
not, and never will be observed. All Brazil is a 
witness of the evils which the immorality of the 
transgressors of that law entails upon society." 
Many other Catholic authorities are of the same 
opinion. 

d. That Celibacy is Opposed to the Wisdom of Modern 
Scientists, Philosophers, Statesmen, and Reformers — 
Franklin said : "Once married, you are in the way 
of becoming a useful citizen. The odd half of a 
pair of scissors cannot well cut anything." Luther 
said : " The greatest blessing God can confer upon 
man is to marry young and to marry a good and 
pious wife." Johnson said : " Marriage is the best 



96 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

state for man in general." Cotton said: "Mar- 
riage, rightly understood, gives the tender and the 
good a Paradise below." Bunyan said : " My wife 
is the plain man's path to heaven." Bismarck said : 
"My wife has made me what I am," Burke said : 
" Every care vanishes the moment I enter m}* 
wife's presence." Burton said: "The true wife 
will increase thy prosperity, double thy happiness, 
drive away thy melancholy, share thy burdens, and 
welcome thee home." Shakespeare declares that : 
"A happy marriage bringeth bliss and is a pattern 
of celestial peace." Coleridge said: "No being so 
wretched as an old bachelor ; no soul having a 
common interest, and no soul to share sorrows and 
pleasures." 

" What is there in the vale of life 
Half so delightful as a wife, 
When friendship, love and peace combine, 
To stamp the marriage bond divine ? 
The stream of pure and genuine love 
Derives its current from above, 
And earth a second Eden shows 
Where'er this healing water flows. 

Flaxman, Scott, Hamilton, Carlyle, Logan, and 
scores of other famous men, attribute much of their 
success to their wives. The reformers all declared 
against celibacy as contrary to the laws of God, and 
affirmed that man had no right to prohibit what 
God enjoined. All evangelical Christians agree that 
celibacy is of no advantage to spiritual life, and 
that the clergy should be allowed to marry at 
their own discretion. Many priests have protested 
against celibac} 7 , and have proclaimed the need of 



The Celibacy of the ^riesthoou. 97 

the companionship of an ennobling" helpmate, 
whose mind was cultivated, whose heart was filled 
with love to brighten and bless their lives. This 
soul-connecting- link of love, which constitutes the 
family union, is the source from which emanates 
the strong- and beautiful ties of mother's love, of 
filial duty, and of fraternal affection between breth- 
ren and kindred. 

4. Celibacy is Opposed to the Old Testament 

Scriptures. 

Marriage was instituted by God in man's inno- 
cency. God performed the first ceremony in mak- 
ing them man and wife. The old Mosaic law 
allowed and encouraged the priests to marry. The 
Jews countenanced neither celibacy nor maiden- 
hood, and the Jewish nation contained neither un- 
married priests nor cloistered nuns. The Patri- 
archs — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — were married. 
Prior to Moses, the first-born of the Hebrews was 
prince and priest, but was not debarred the state 
of matrimony. Moses, the celebrated law-giver, 
was married and had a family. 

The holy prophets, Noah, Joseph, Samuel, David, 
Isaiah, and Ezekiel, were married and became the 
parents of sons and daughters. The Levitical 
priests were allowed the same privilege. Marriage 
was not simply a privilege but in one sense a com- 
mand. The sons of the Aaronical priesthood were 
priests in consequence of their birthright, and this 
office, therefore, could not have been transmitted 
to their posterity and successors without marriage. 



98 America or Home: Christ or the Pope. 

5. Celibacy is Opposed to the New Testament 

Scriptures. 

Neither our Lord nor his apostles laid any re- 
straint whatever upon the connubial union. On the 
contrary, they speak of it as honorable in all. Jesus 
Christ sanctioned this institution by gracing- a mar- 
riage at Cana of Galilee by his presence and first 
miracle. He said: "For this cause shall a man 
leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his 
wife : and they twain shall be one flesh. . . . 
What therefore God hath joined together, let not 
man put asunder." Jesus exalted marriage to the 
highest dignity and considered it one of the most 
sacred duties. It is the symbol of the. union of 
Christ to the Church. The consummation of hope, 
purity and joy of heaven is typified under the mar- 
riage supper of the Lamb. 

Philip, the Evangelist, was married and had 
four daughters. Aquila and Priscilla were mar- 
ried. "All the apostles," says Ambrosius, "ex- 
cept John and Paul, were married." Peter, whose 
pretended successors have become the Vicars of 
Christ, was a married man — Jesus healed Peter's 
mother-in law. Some of the earlier fathers main- 
tain that Paul also was married. He had the right 
to marry, for he said : "Have we not the power to 
lead about a wife, as well as the other apostles ? " 
It was this apostle that said " Let every man have 
his own wife, and let ever}' woman have her own 
husband." "Marriage is honorable in all." 

Paul speaks of these latter times, of seducing 



The Celibacy of the Priesthood. 99 

spirits and doctrines of devils, who forbid people to 
marry. Paul goes further, and tells us the kind of 
men God would have for the teachers of his church. 
I. Tim. iii. 1-13 : 

" 1. This is a true saying - , If a man desire 
the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. 

"2. A bishop then must be blameless, the hus- 
band of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, 
given to hospitality, apt to teach ; 

"3. Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy 
of filthy lucre ; but patient, not a brawler, not 
covetous ; 

" 4. One that ruleth well his own house, having 
his children in subjection with all gravity: 

"5, (For if a man know not how to rule his 
own house, how shall he take care of the church 
of God ?) 

" 6. Not a novice, lest being- lifted up with pride 
he fall into the condemnation of the devil. 

" 7. Moreover he must have a g-ood report of 
them which are without ; lest he fall into reproach 
and the snare of the devil. 

"8. Likewise must the deacons be grave, not 
double-tong-ued, not given to much wine, not greedy 
of filthy lucre ; 

"9. Holding- the mystery of the faith in a pure 
conscience. 

"10. And let these also first be proved; then 
let them use the office of a deacon, being- found 
blameless. 

44 11. Even so must their wives be grave, not 
slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. 

"12. Let the deacons be the husbands of one 
wife, ruling their own children and their own 
houses well. 

" 13. For they that have used the office of a 
deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, 



100 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

and great boldness in the faith which is in Jesus 
Christ." 

Now, I would ask the Roman Catholics who read 
the Bible, how can their Pope command their 
clergy not to marry after such an express command 
on the part of the apostle? "If," says Paul, kt a 
man knows not how to rule his own house, how 
shall he take care of the church of God?" ' % A 
bishop must be the husband of one wife." No 
words could be plainer. If a man cannot rule his 
own house he is not qualified to rule God's church. 
It is not any wonder that Rome wants to educate 
her people and to keep education under her control. 
Ig-norance is her necessary condition. 

We have proven that celibacy is opposed to 
nature, the home, human wisdom, and both the 
Old and New Testament Scriptures. In closing - , I 
am constrained to say : 

The Present Condition op Romanism Demands a 
Married Priesthood. 

But few priests will have the self-denial to live 
without female companionship. The census papers 
show that there are several hundred women in the 
Vatican. Female inmates in the priest's parson- 
age is being- looked upon as a matter of course by the 
parishioners. Convents, monasteries, and nun- 
neries are on the increase. Cases of scandal may 
be less frequent to-day because of public opinion 
and the vigilant eye of Protestants, but purity is 
not as a consequence more certain. Under the 



The Celibacy of the Priesthood. 101 

shade of mystery the crimes may be as great, but 
self-preservation insures their concealment. 

History proves the impracticability of a pure 
celibacy on the greater part of the clergy. It 
proves that evils the most appalling" follow the 
unmarried priest. It proves that it unfits the heart 
of the priest for virtue and disqualifies him for 
devotion. It proves that Romanism is a heartless 
religion and that immorality is more pronounced 
in Roman Catholic nations. What then should be 
done ? 

1. Lt Romanists Insist upon a Married Priesthood — 
In 1548, when Parliament in France and England 
revoked the laws prohibiting the marriage of 
priests, out of sixteen thousand, twelve thousand 
married within six years. It showed their willing- 
ness to throw off the unnatural and heavy yoke 
imposed upon them by the Church. Let the priest 
marry and become the head of a family. Let a 
noble wife share the heart and love and toil of 
every priest. 

Among the priests are man}' men better than 
the system that fetters them. They owe it to 
themselves, to their people, to their county, and 
to their God to marry and increase the number 
of homes in America, the land of homes. When 
a good wife shares the work of the priest, the 
confessional-box will disappear. A good wife 
would make short work of her husband being 
closeted, hour after hour, with other women, con- 
versing upon topics which are vile and unbecom- 
ing. Let the priests marry, and impurity will be 



102 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

exchanged for purity, confidence will take the 
place of suspicion, and the priests will become 
lovers of home and country instead of Pope and 
popery. 

2. A Work for Legislators. — Our lawmakers 
should handle this subject through a commission 
appointed to investigate the secrets and practices 
of the confessional, the nunnery and the convent.. 
There are thousands ready to testify against their 
iniquities. Every nun should be permitted at 
least once a year to have a private interview with 
a representative of the state ; when this was in- 
sisted upon in Germany, the convent system was 
abandoned. If a church is enforcing unnatural 
and unjust laws in our free country, both policy 
and justice require our legislators to revoke them 
and break up the evils consequent thereon. 

3. Can we as Protestants do Nothing ? — In the name 
of liberty and in the name of humanity, how long 
must we suffer these evils, practices, and intrigues 
of Rome ? Is it not time for us to turn over a 
page in our history ? Is it not time that the truth 
should be preached and hypocrisy supplanted ? 
The truth proclaimed is the hope of humanitv. 
Truth locked up in Bibles is useless. Truth piled 
up in libraries is valueless. Truth confined in 
the hearts of weak-kneed Protestants is fruitless. 
Let the truth be spoken ! let the truth be printed ! 
let the truth be known ! and there will be much 
done toward the pulling down of the strongholds 
of Romanism ! Evil does not want to be disturbed. 
Immorality loves seclusion. Crime courts the dark- 



The Celibacy op the Priesthood. 103 

ness. Romanism fears the truth. The devil 
trembles in the presence of an exposure. O people! 
you must not suppress the truth. You must not 
withhold God's message. You must reward Roman- 
ism as she has rewarded you. Our land is full of 
her iniquities, and it is the duty of every Protestant 
man and woman to protest against the confessional- 
box, the priestly celibacy, and her political in- 
trigues. Nothing- will reform her sooner than for 
every one to tell what he knows, to expose her 
sins, and to oppose her encroachment upon our 
liberties. Have you the faith, have you the heart, 
have you the moral courage to tell the truth and 
shame Romanism, to stand by your liberties, and 
to proclaim the Gospel of Christ? God Almighty 
grant it. 



TRANSUBSTANTIATION AND THE SACRIFICE OF 
THE MASS. 



Canons of the Council of Trent Concerning the 
Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. 

"1. Whosoever shall deny that in the Sacra- 
ment of the Most Holy Eucharist are contained, 
truly, really and substantially, the body and blood, 
tog-ether with the soul and divinity of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and therefore, the entire Christ; but 
shall say that he is in it only as in a sign, or figure 
of virtue : let him be accursed. 

" 2. Whosoever shall say that in the Most Holy 
Sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of bread 
and wine remains together with the body and blood 
of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and shall deny that 
wonderful and singular conversion of the whole 
substance of the bread into the body, and of the 
whole substance of the wine into the blood, only 
the forms of the bread and wine remaining ; which 
conversion, indeed, the Catholic Church most apt- 
ly calls transubstantiation : let him be accursed. 

"3. Whosoever shall deny that in the Adorable 
Sacrament of the Eucharist, the entire Christ is 
contained under each kind and under the single 
parts of each kind, when a separation is made : 
let him be accursed. 

"4. Whosoever shall say that the body and 
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are not present in 

(104) 



Transubstantiatiox. 105 

the Admirable Eucharist so soon as the consecra- 
tion is performed, but only in the use when it is 
received, and neither before nor after ; and that 
the true body of our Lord does not remain in the 
hosts, or consecrated morsels, which are reserved 
or left after the communion : let him be accursed. 

"6. Whosoever shall affirm that in the Holy 
Sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ, the only begot- 
ten Son of God, is not to be adored even with the 
external worship of the latria ; and therefore that 
the Eucharist is to be honored neither with pecul- 
iar festive celebration, nor to be solemnly car- 
ried about in procession according 1 to the laudable 
and universal rite and custom of the Church, or 
that it is not to be held up publicly before the 
people that it may be adored, and that its worship- 
ers are idolaters : let him be accursed. 

" 8. Whoever shall say that Christ, as exhibited 
in the Eucharist, is eaten spiritually, and not also 
sacramentally and really: let him be accursed." 

The 5th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th canons we omit, 
as they are either repetitions of the above or are 
irrelevant to the subject. 

We copy the following from Deharbe's Large 
Catechism : 

The Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed 

Sacrament. 

" What is the Holy Eucharist ? 

" The Holy Eucharist is the Sacrament in which 
the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are sub- 
stantially present under the appearance of bread 
and wine, for the nourishment of our souls, 

"What became of the bread and wine when 
Christ pronounced these words over them : 4 This 
is my body' ? ' This is my blood ' ? 



106 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

" The bread was changed into the body and the 
wine into the blood of Jesus Christ. 

' ' After these words of Christ, what still remained 
of the bread and wine ? 

"Nothing" remained of bread and wine, but their 
species or appearances. 

" What is meant by the appearances of bread and 
wine ? 

" By appearances of bread and wine is meant all 
that our senses perceive of bread and wine, such as 
color, form, taste, etc. 

"How long- does Jesus Christ remain present 
with his sacred Body and Blood ? 

"Jesus Christ remains as long- as the species or 
appearances of bread and wine continue to exist. 

" Have we to drink of the chalice, to receive the 
Blood of Christ ? 

"No, for under the appearance of bread, we re- 
ceive also the Blood of Christ, since we receive His 
living- Body." 

We copy the following- from Gury's Doctrines of 
the Jesuits : 

The Efficacy of the Eucharist. 

" Q. How long- are the sacred elements supposed 
to remain intact, after one has received the Sacra- 
ment ? 

" Ans. There is nothing- agreed on this point ; 
some say one minute ; others five ; others seven. 
But they remain intact long-er with a priest, who 
takes the communion with the two elements and 
with a larg-er consecrated wafer, than with a lay- 
man who receives only a small one ; althoug-h it 
seems certain, that fifteen minutes after the com- 
munion, even with a priest, provided he is in g-ood 
health, the elements are dissolved." 



Transubstantiation. 107 

The Person Who Receives the Eucharist. 

On "Required dispositions for receiving* the 
Eucharist" (fasting-). 

kt Q Does a pinch of snuff break the fast ? 

'* Ans. No, even if part of it goes into the 
stomach, because although such matter may be 
nourishing- one does not take it as food. 

" Q. Does the smell of tobacco, or similar mat- 
ters, break the fast ? 

"Ans. No, according- to the more common and 
probable opinion, because smoke is neither aliment 
nor drink." 

Ministry of the Eucharist. 

kk Nicaon, a priest, having- a sore hand, and not 
being- able to use his forefinger at communion, 
takes and offers the consecrated wafer between the 
thumb and middle finger. 

" Ques. What are we to think of Nicaon ? 

"Ans. It is not allowed to give the Eucharist 
with other fingers than the thumb and forefinger, 
. . . and consequently Nicaon has sinned griev- 
ously in principle." 

We copy from one of their Mission Books, page 

353: 

k ' Q What is the Holy Eucharist ? 

" A. The Holy Eucharist is the most holy of all 
the Sacraments ; it is the true body and blood of 
our Lord Jesus Christ under the appearance of 
bread and wine. 

" Q Are the soul and divinity of our Lord also 
present in the sacrament ? 

" A. Yes, the whole person of Jesus Christ is 
there, living and entire. 

* 4 Q. Is it right to adore the Blessed Eucharist ? 
A. Yes, we may and ought to adore it. 



4; 



108 America or Home: Christ or the Pope. 

' k Q How and when are the bread and wine 
changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ ? 

k ' A. This change is wrought by virtue of the 
words of consecration pronounced by the Priest 
during the Holy Mass." 

Cardinal Manning says: "I profess likewise 
that in the mass there is offered to God a true, 
proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living 
and the dead ; and that in the Most Holy Sacra- 
ment of the Eucharist there is truly, really and 
substantially, the body and blood, together with 
the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
and that there is made a change of the whole sub- 
stance of the bread into the body, and of the whole 
substance of the wine into the blood, which change 
the Catholic Church calls transubstantiation. I 
also confess that under either kind alone Christ is 
received whole and entire, and a true Sacrament." 

Is not Rome Changed ? 
Are not her doctrines modified ? Do her people 
believe the articles of her Councils and Catechisms? 
I know not what enlightened individuals may hold 
in contradiction to the teachings of their Church, 
but I do know that they dare not publicly express 
any opinions contrary to the decrees of the Coun- 
cils ; if they would do so, excommunication would 
follow. I have quoted at length, and from the high- 
est authorities, the teachings of the Church of Rome 
on the Lord's Supper. The Church is infallible ; 
she cannot change, for her infallibility precludes it. 

The Origin of the Doctrine of Transubstan- 
tiation. 

The first appearance of this doctrine was in the 
beginning of the eighth century. There is no 



Transubstantiation. 109 

trace of belief in the real presence of Christ in the 
wafer and wine until seven hundred years after the 
introduction of Christianity. This doctrine orig- 
inated in the brain of a monk. It was brought 
forward by Radbert, A. D. 830. He first proclaimed 
it as an article of faith. The doctrine was at first 
much opposed, but was finally adopted by Councils 
and Popes, and was authoritatively established by 
the Fourth Council of the Lateranin 1215. It was 
introduced and effected in an imperious manner. 
This Lateran Council invented the word "transub- 
stantiation," and this Council decreed : "There is 
one universal church of the faithful, out of which 
no one can be saved, in which the same Jesus 
Christ is both priest and sacrifice, whose body and 
blood in the sacrament of the altar is truly con- 
tained under the figures of bread and wine, the 
bread being transubstantiated into the body, and 
the wine into the blood by the divine power." 
Transubstantiation was introduced during this 
dark and bloody period of histor} r , in which the 
Papacy appeared as one vast overflowing ocean of 
corruption, horror and iniquity. Ignorance, immo- 
rality and superstition are the mothers of this 
abomination. The Council of Trent, A. D. 1545, 
gave it its full and final institution as an article 
of faith. Such is the origin of this absurd and 
monstrous doctrine which outrages revelation, in- 
sults reason, contradicts science, and degrades man. 

1. It has no Foundation in the Scriptures. 
1. It Destroys the Nature of a Sacrament. — A sacra- 



110 America ok Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

merit requires a sign and a thing- signified ; an ob- 
ject presented to our senses and a promised bless- 
ing- represented by it. According to the doctrine 
of transubstantiation the sign is taken away and 
the thing signified is put in its place — the bread is 
no longer the symbol of Christ's body, but it is 
the body itself. 

2. It Contradicts the Word and Life of Christ. — 
Jesus was not dead when he instituted the Lord's 
Supper. If he gave His own body to the disci- 
ples, he must have had two bodies, one that gave 
and one that was given ; one that he gave and 
one that he kept ; but as he had only one body, 
transubstantiation is false. How could He change 
the bread which He held in His own hand into 
His own body? The existence of His body pre- 
vented the possibility. How dare the priests say 
that the bread which Jesus held in His hand was 
the body, soul and divinity of the very Christ that 
held it ? How dare the priests say that the wine 
in the cup was literally the blood that was cours- 
ing in his veins ? Was Christ breaking His own 
body and pouring His own blood by means of His 
own hands? Nothing could be more absurd; 
nothing more incompatible with reason. 

3. Jt Requires us to Believe a Contradiction. — It re- 
quires us to believe the human body and soul of 
Christ to be in heaven and at the same time in ten 
thousand places on the earth. Jesus possessed a real 
body ; he was crucified on the cross ; buried in the 
tomb ; arose from the dead ; appeared to the disci- 
ples ; ascended to the heavens, and sat down forever 



Transubstantiation. Ill 

on the right hand of God. And he declared ik Where 
I am there also shall my servants be." That is, he 
desired them to be with Him in His glory. Now if 
Christ's real presence is in the sacrament, how can 
He be in His glory ? If the saints are present with 
Him and He is in the sacrament, then they too 
must be in the sacrament, Was there ever a hu- 
man being- left to the exercise of his own faculties 
who could belive such an absurd contradiction ? 

4. Transubstantiation is Opposed to the Usage of the 
Language Employed by Jesus in Instituting the Supper. — 
The Scriptures must be understood in a literal 
sense unless the nature of the subject or the con- 
text forbids it, or the literal meaning- involves a 
contradiction and absurdity. No absurdity can be 
proved by a rule of grammar and no contradiction 
can be proved by a law of logic. We admit that 
Jesus said "This is my body," but it must be ob- 
served : 

a. That in the language spoken by our Lord 
there is no word which expresses "to signify," or 
"to represent." The verb "to be" was generally 
used in the sense of "to represent," so that when 
he said "This is my body," he said and meant, 
" This represents my body." 

b. Such is the Bible sense of the word. With 
this explanation meditate upon these passages : 
"The three branches are three days"; "The 
seven good kine are seven years " ; Daniel said to 
Nebuchadnezzar, " Thou art this head of gold" ; 
"Jesus said "lam the vine." "I am the door," 
" I am the bread," " This is my body." Now, 



112 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

with the understanding- that the Jews were accus- 
tomed to call the sign by the thing- signified we 
know that the disciples understood the design of 
the Lord's Supper and knew that the bread was a 
sign or a memorial of his body. Moses said of the 
paschal lamb, "It is the Lord's passover," and 
so Jesus said of the bread, " This is my body.'' 
The passover was the act of God, and the lamb was 
the memorial of it. It would be as reasonable to 
infer that the lamb was God himself, as it would be 
to infer that the bread was the very body of Christ. 

c. Similar phraseology is used to-day. It is 
common to say of a portrait of Columbus, " This is 
Columbus"; or of Washington, "This is Wash- 
ington " ; or of your mother, 4 ' This is my mother. " 
You enter a room filled with statuary ; the guide 
tells you, "This is Socrates," "This is Plato,'' 
and " That is Homer." He knows, and so do you, 
that those busts are only representations of those 
ancient philosophers and poets. There is just as 
much difference between a piece of bread and the 
body of Jesus Christ as there is between a block of 
marble and the person it represents. 

d. If "This is my body" must be interpreted 
literally, then " This cup is the New Testament in 
my blood" must also be interpreted literally. But 
the Roman clergy see the folly of interpreting the 
1 ' cup " literally ' ' the New Testament. " They do not 
even admit the contents of the cup to be " the New 
Testament." If a literal interpretation is insisted 
on for the bread, the same rule must be applied to 
the cup. If this cannot be granted, then neither 



Transubstantiation. 113 

can the other. So the words of the institution 
prove nothing. 

5. The Wcrds " Do this in Remembrance of Me " 
Overthrow the Doctrine of Transubstantiation — We re- 
member the absent, not the present. The Lord's 
Supper is a memorial institution. We celebrate it 
in remembrance of his sufferings and death : " For 
as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, 
ye do show the Lord's death till he come." It 
would be useless to partake of the supper in 
remembrance of Christ when he was present with 
us. It would be more like a reception or jubilee 
than a memorial feast. 

6. The Apostles did not Teach Transubstantiation, — 
Paul said, "Let a man examine himself, and so 
let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup." 
If he believed that the bread was the real body of 
Christ, why did he call it bread ? The fact is, that 
this doctrine, like the majority of the dogmas and 
abominations of Rome, has no foundation in the 
apostolic writings. 

7. The Sixth Chapter of John does not Establish the 
Doctrine of Transubstantiation. — This is the final ap- 
peal of the Pope arid his supporters. To this chap- 
ter they run when all else fails. Their doctrine of 
transubstantiation they claim is fully proved by 
this chapter, which reads as follows : kt Kxcept ye 
eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, 
ye have no life in you, . . . my flesh is meat 
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that 
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth 
in me, and I in him." The Romanists contend that 

8 



114 America or Eome: Christ or the Pope. 

these expressions refer to the Lord's Supper, and 
should be interpreted literally ; but both assump- 
tions are false, as may be proven by the context. 
If this must be taken literally, then it follows that 
he who has once eaten it shall live forever. But 
this the Romanists do not believe, and hence are 
inconsistent. This language was addressed to the 
unbelieving- Jews a long* time before the Supper was 
instituted. Jesus makes not the remotest allusion to 
the Lord's Supper. His words have a spiritual 
reference. "The words that I speak unto you, they 
are spirit, and they are life." " He that believeth 
in me hath everlasting- life." " Labor not for the 
meat which perisheth, but for that meat which 
endureth unto everlasting- life, which the Son of 
man shall give unto you." "Whoso eateth my 
flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; 
and I will raise him up at the last day." 

The actions of the mind are sig-nified by those of 
the body. This was quite common among-st the 
Jews. Says Solomon, "The soul of the transgres- 
sor shall eat violence." We are told that Jeremiah 
ate the words of God ; these are only a few speci- 
mens of this kind of speech taken from revelation. 
Eating- and drinking- are here used as metaphors to 
sig-nify the operations of the mind in believing-. 
Christ is the meat and drink of our spirits. This 
is the spiritual truth that is dig-ested by the mind 
and renews the soul from day to day. As bread is 
the food for our bodies, so Christ is the food for 
our souls. 



Transubstantiation. ] 15 

2. Transubstantiation Receives no Support 

from Antiquity. 

Justin Martyr, in the second century, in speak- 
ing* of the Lord's Supper, says: "We do these 
thing-s in memory of his Son, Jesus Christ." In the 
third century, Tertullian said : " This is my bod}% 
that is, the figure of my body." Origen said : "It 
is not the matter of the bread, but the words which 
are spoken over it which profits him that eats it 
worthily, and this, indeed, as a symbolical body." 
In the fourth century, Cyril of Jerusalem said : 
" Under the type of bread you have his body given 
you, and under the t}-pe of wine you have his 
blood." St. Augustine said : "I have commended 
a sacrament unto you, which being spiritually 
understood will give } t ou life." In the fifth century 
Theodoret declares: "The mystic signs do not 
recede from their nature after their consecration, 
but they remain in their former substance, and 
figure, and form, and can be seen and touched as 
before." Thus we have one continued stream of 
testimony for the first five centuries against the 
doctrine of transubstantiation; testimony complete, 
satisfactory and undeniable. In all this testimony 
there is no mention of the body of Christ and the 
blood of Christ being received in any other sense 
than that of faith. 

3. The Variance of Romish Schoolmen upon 

the Subject Disproves it. 
Samuel Edgar says : " One division in the papal 
connection allows the sacramental body all the 



116 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

chief properties of matter, such as quantity, exten- 
sion, visibility, motion and locality : all of which 
a second section deny. A third party ascribes to 
his soul in the host the principal powers of the 
operation of mind, such as understanding - , will, 
sensation, passion and action, while this theory is 
rejected by a fourth faction. The chief warriors 
who fought in these bloodless battles were the 
schoolmen, who have displayed admirable skill and 
heroism in the alternate attack and defense of sub- 
tilized absurdity and folly.'' Now, while it is true 
that there may be a variance of opinion amongst 
the schoolmen, yet they have been careful in ex- 
pressing" their opinion, so that they do not, in any 
way, dissent from the great doctrine of transub- 
stantiation as expressed in the decrees of the 
Councils of Lateran and Trent. All persons who 
have preached, taught and published otherwise 
have been guilty of heresy, and have been subject 
to the dreadful curse of the cursing- Church, and 
many such offenders had to suffer judgment, tor- 
ture and death, and had to forfeit their goods and 
estates to the king, or Church, or Pope, or their 
supporters. 

4. Transubstantiation is Cannibalism.* 

The communicant who believes in corporal pres- 
ence devours human flesh and blood, and therefore 
is guilty of the rankest cannibalism. He surpasses 
the cannibal, for the cannibal eats the limbs and 
drinks the blood of his enemy ; but the Romanist 

*See Appendix No. 4, 



Transubstantiation. 117 

eats the flesh and blood of a friend. The cannibal 
eats the dead ; the Romanist devours the living-. 
The cannibal eats man, the creature ; the Roman- 
ist eats God, the Creator. The cannibal never ate 
the object of his superstition, but the Romanist 
eats the object of his adoration. Crotus, the Jew, 
declares, "Christians eat their God." Aberroes, 
the Arabian philosopher, said, "I have traveled 
over the world and seen many people, but none 
so sottish and ridiculous as those who devour the 
God whom they worship." Cicero said: " Whom 
do you think so demented as to believe what he 
eats to be God ? " A Romish gentleman, speak- 
ing- of his first communion, said : "I extremely ab- 
horred the idea of eating- human flesh and drinking 
human blood, even when they assured me that they 
were the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. But what 
troubled me most was the idea of that God who 
was represented to me as being- so great, so glo- 
rious, so holy, being- eaten by me like a piece of 
common bread. Terrible then was the struggle in 
my young heart where joy and dread, trust and 
fear, faith and unbelief, by turns had the upper 
hand." Mr. Chiniquy, the ex-priest, says : "The 
world in its darkest age of paganism has never 
witnessed such a system of idolatry, so debasing, 
impious, ridiculous and diabolical in its conse- 
quences as the Church of Rome teaches in the dog- 
ma of transubstantiation. When with the light 
of the Gospel in hand, the Christian goes into those 
horrible recesses of superstition, folly and impiety, 
he can hardly believe what his eyes see and his 



118 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope 

ears hear. It seems impossible that man can con- 
sent to worship a God whom the rats can eat ; a God 
who can be dragged away and lost in a muddy 
ditch by a drunken priest ; a God who can be eaten, 
vomited, and eaten again by those who are cour- 
ageous enough to eat again what they have vom- 
ited." 

5. It is Blasphemy. 

Every bishop and priest believes and teaches that 
he has the power to turn all the wafers and loaves 
in his charge into the body, blood, soul and divinity 
of Christ. Biel says : " He that created me gave 
me power to create himself." The priest manu- 
factures his God. This exalts the clergy above 
emperors and angels. They have a manufac- 
tory by which they can forge new Gods at 
any time. The Deity created in this manner be- 
comes a very convenient article. He may be de- 
posited on the altar, or carried in a box, or put in 
a vest-pocket — as did Priest Parent of Quebec with 
his God during a soiree. It causes a shudder to 
think of human sinful beings claiming the power, 
by the act of consecration, to turn the wafer into 
the bodv, blood and soul of Christ. What kind of 
a superstitious fear and horror must the poor ig- 
norant people have of this device, and what sort of 
a notion must the wise and learned among them 
have of it ? They must eithtr look upon it with 
sorrow, or as a piece of trickery to deceive the 
simple, or they must be led, step by step, to doubt, 
to misgivings and infidelity. 



Tkansubstantiatiox. 119 

6. It is an Absurd Doctrine. 
Nothing- invented by man ever equaled its irra- 
tionality. Mr. Edgar calls it " the grand consum- 
mation of unqualified absurdity." You may exam- 
ine the follies of history and superstition, and 
search the wide range of religion and philosophy, 
and you will find no dogma so fraught with incon- 
sistency, so incompatible with reason, so irrecon- 
cilable with common sense, so complete with non- 
sense. We are told, "If in winter the blood be 
frozen in the cup, to wrap the cup in cloths, and if 
that will not do, let it be put into boiling- water 
near the altar till it be melted, taking- care that it 
does not g-et into the cup." "What a spectacle ! " 
says Mr. Vandyke, " A God frozen and warmed with 
bandages or boiling- water. ,, Ag-ain : "If an}' of 
the blood of Christ fall to the ground by negli- 
gence, it must be licked up with the tongue, the 
place be sufficiently scraped, and the scrapings 
burned. But the ashes must be buried in holy 
ground." We are also told, " If, after consecra- 
tion, a gnat, or spider, or any such thing fall into 
the chalice, let the priest swallow it with the blood 
if he can ; but if he fear danger, and have a loath- 
ing, let him take it out and wash it in the wine, 
and when mass is ended, burn it, and cast it, with 
the washings, into holy ground." 

Peter Dens says: "What if the sick man vomit 
up the sacred host ? Ans. Conformably to the Ro- 
man Missal, if the forms appear whole, they may 
be reverently gathered up, and afterwards taken ; 
but if nausea forbids this, then they must be care- 



120 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

fully separated from the filth and thus they must be 
laid aside in some sacred place, and after they have 
become corrupt, they may be put away into the 
sacristy, or some sacred sink ; for so long" as they 
are entire, they cannot be burned without a kind 
of sacrilege." 

Mr. MacAfee, a stanch Romanist, speaking- on 
the accidents of transubstantiation, quotes the fol- 
lowing- : "If the consecrated host vanish away by 
some accident, as if it be carried away by the wind, 
or eaten up by some beast, or can't be found, then 
let another be consecrated." That is, if one God 
be lost make another. If the body of Christ is 
present in the wafer, then it is subject to a variety 
of accidents ; then it may fall, it may be stolen, it 
may be cast into the mire, it may be lost, it may 
become old, it may mold, it may breed worms, it 
may be eaten by a mouse, or it may be devoured by 
a dog. If the wine contains his blood ; being- in a 
liquid state it may be spilled or frozen, it may be- 
come ice, or by heat be raised to a boiling- state. 
Behold the absurdities : he who made the wind may 
be carried away by it ; he who made the mouse may 
be eaten by it ; he who created the heavens and the 
earth, may be encased, body, blood, soul and divin- 
ity, in a little piece of pastry, transferred into the 
mouth and swallowed into the stomach. 

Anthony Gavin, a Roman Catholic priest, tells 
us the following story: "In the Dominicans' con- 
vent it happened that a lady who had a lap-dog 
which she always carried along with her went to 
receive the sacrament with the dog under her arm, 
and the dog looking up and beginning to bark 



Transubstantiation. 121 

when the friar went to put the wafer into the lady's 
mouth, he let the wafer fall, which happened to 
drop into the dog's mouth. Both the friar and 
the lady were in deep confusion and knew not 
what to do ; so they sent for the Father Prior, who 
called two friars and the clerk, and ordered 
brought a cross and two candlesticks with two 
candles lighted, and to carry the dog in from 
the procession into the vestry, and to keep 
the little creature there with illuminations till 
the digestion of the wafer was over, and then to 
kill the dog and throw it into the piscina. Anoth- 
er friar said it was better to open the dog imme- 
diately and take out the fragments of the host ; 
and the third was of the opinion that the dog 
should be burned on the spot. The lady, who loved 
her little dog, entreated the Father Prior to save 
the dog's life, if possible, and she would make 
amends for his misdemeanor. Then the prior and 
friars retired to consult what to do in this case ; 
and it was resolved that the dog should be called 
for the future the " Sacramental dog" ; that if he 
should die the lady was to bury him in consecrated 
ground ; that the lady should not let him play with 
other dogs ; that she was to give a silver dog; 
which was to be placed on the tabernacle where 
the hosts are kept ; that she should give twenty 
pistoles to the convent. The lady performed every 
article, and the little dog was kept with great 
care and veneration. But when the case came to 
the ears of the inquisitor, he sent for the poor dog, 
and kept him in the inquisition, to the great grief 
of the lady. The case was presented to the Acad- 
emy for the opinion of its members, and those 
learned and serious men, after devout meditation, 
had various opinions as to what should have been 
done. Some thought the matter should have been 
kept quiet. ; some thought the soul of the dog was 



122 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

nourished by the sacrament ; and some thought 
the dog- should have been given an emetic, and oth- 
ers thought the proper course had been pursued. 
Thus those holy men spent much time on the acci- 
dent that fell to the consecrated host, but what 
became of the dog no one can tell." 

Of the absurdity, impiety, and blasphemy of this 
stupid and wicked doctrine there seems to be no 
limit. This argument we shall close with an inci- 
dent related by Mr. Edgar in his "Variations of 
Popery": 

"As Priest Gage was celebrating the mass a 
sacrilegious mouse sallied forth, seized and in 
triumph carried off the wafer God whom the priest 
had made. The priest alarmed the people, who 
began to search for the thief who had stolen their 
Almighty. The malefactor that committed the 
depredation escaped. The God, however, was 
found, but mutilated and mouse-eaten. The half- 
devoured Jehovah was carried in procession about 
the church amidst joyful and solemn music. The 
transaction was the means of showing Gage, 
though a priest, the absurdity of this dogma, and 
teaching him a more rational system. The event 
proselyted Gage, author of 'The Survey,' from 
Romanism." 

7. It is Opposed to Science. 

A farmer sows wheat, it imbibes the sap of the 
earth, springs up, drinks the rain from heaven, is 
warmed by the sunshine, ripens, is cut down, is 
threshed, carried to the mill, ground into flour, 
and part of it is baked into a wafer. The priest 
says, '" Hoc est corpus meum" and in an instant the 
wafer is converted into the body of Christ, but it 



Transubstantiation. 123 

still retains all of its properties, its chemical ele- 
ments of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, etc. It is still 
a wafer ; it has the figure, size, smell, and color of 
the wafer. It is destitute of life and animation ; it 
can neither see, nor hear, nor speak, nor move, nor 
walk, nor stand, nor sit, nor elevate itself for the 
people to worship. You might as well believe that 
the priest can change the north pole into the 
equator or the sun into the moon. If the wafer 
loses its substance it must cease to exist. If the 
substance of the bread and wine does not remain 
after the consecration, then, when poison is mixed 
with it, it is either mixed with the smell and color 
and taste or with the body of Christ, either of 
which is absurd. It is a historic fact, that poison 
has been mixed with the consecrated host and the 
wine, and both have been affected by it. Pope 
Victor III. was poisoned by the cup, and Henry 
VII. died from eating the poisoned host. 

8. It Subverts the Evidence of our Senses. 

After the consecration it looks like bread, feels 
like bread, and tastes like bread. The wine smells 
like wine, tastes like wine, and looks like wine. 
We have therefore the testimony of our senses 
against the doctrine. We have more evidence that 
the bread and wine are nothing but bread and wine 
than the apostles had of the incarnation of Christ. 
We dare not deny the testimony of our senses. It 
will not do to call the doctrine of transubstantia- 
tion a miracle, because the Scriptures do not so 
represent the Lord's Supper, and, besides, all the 



124 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

miracles of which we read in the Bible in no sense 
contradict the testimony of our senses. There is 
not a single incident in which God ever required 
anyone to discredit the testimony of his senses. If 
we cannot depend upon them in the case of the 
bread and wine, how can we depend upon them in 
any other case ? The man who believes this doc- 
trine must resign his intellectual liberty, must act 
the part of one who has no power of intelligence, 
and must deny the testimony of his senses. A 
good Roman Catholic may reach this point, but a 
good Protestant never. 

9. It is Opposed to Mathematics. 

It requires man to believe that a whole is equal 
to a part, and a part equal to a whole. Let the 
wafer be divided into four or eight sections, and as 
each section contains the body of Christ entire and 
as the whole contains his body, it follows that one 
part must be equal to the whole, and the one-fourth 
equal to the one-eighth at the same time. On the 
same principle a fourth of a circle is equal to a 
whole circle. What a strange faith ! It narrows 
and contracts at pleasure. It opposes reason, 
science, and mathematics. The person who can 
digest all of these contradictions must have an 
unlimited capacity of credulity. 

There are many abominations which follow the 
doctrine of transubstantiation. They differ in de- 
gree, but all naturally flow out of the one great 
error ; for instance, refusing the cup to the laity, 
the sacrifice of mass, the adoration of the host, 




Withholding the Cup from the Laity. 



126 America or Rome: Chris? or the IPope. 

carrying" it about in solemn procession, extreme 
unction, etc. These errors are consequents of the 
one great error of transubstantiation. These shall 
be briefly noticed. 

Withholding the) Cup from thk Laity. 

In 1415 the Council of Constance decreed that in 
the Lord's Supper only the bread and not the wine 
should be administered to the laity. The reasons 
g-iven by Rome for withholding- the cup from the 
laity are silly in the extreme. The Council of 
Trent assigns several of them : 

"1. In the first place the greatest caution was 
necessary to avoid accident or indig-nity, which 
must become almost inevitable if the chalice were 
administered in a crowded assemblage." 

"2. If the species of wine remain long- uncon- 
sumed, it were to be apprehended that it may be- 
come vapid.' 1 I presume there is no danger of it 
becoming- vapid or unconsumed if left to the care of 
the priest. 

tk 3. There are many who cannot bear the smell 
or taste of wine." For the sake of the few, per- 
haps one in a million, deprive the whole Church of 
the use of one of the elements. 

"4. A circumstance which principally influ- 
enced the church in establishing- this practice: 
means were to be devised to crush the heresy which 
denied that Christ, whole and entire, is contained 
under either species." In reply I would say it is 
a sing-ular way to crush heresy by mutilating- one 
of the important ordinances of the Church. Mr. 



Transubstantiation. 127 

Dixon, the eminent Baptist divine, in speaking- 
on this subject, says : " One of the evils of keeping- 
wine from the people is that it is all given to the 
priests ; and the result is to a larg-e extent a wine- 
drinking- priesthood. There need be no surprise. 
The man who is compelled early in the morning - , 
before breakfast, to drink a g-lass of wine, and then, 
perhaps, another g-lass ; and then after breakfast 
repeat it two or three times, will in the very nature 
of the case require a taste, and then the raving- 
appetite for drink which demands more drink to 
quench it, and continues to burn like a fire till 
body and soul are consumed." 

To support the dog-ma of communion in one kind, 
the Romanist refers to those passag-es which speak 
of the breaking- of bread. But this, all Bible 
scholars know, has been a phrase or title descrip- 
tive of the Sacrament during- all history. 

This dogma, like many others of Rome, is 

Opposed to the Scriptures. — When Jesus instituted the 
Supper, Mark says : " Jesus took bread, and blessed, 
and brake it, and g-ave to them, and said, Take, 
eat : this is my body. And he took the cup, and 
when he had given thanks, he g-ave it to them : 
and they all drank of it." Paul gives the same 
testimony, in I. Cor. xi., and then adds, "Let a 
man examine himself, and so let him eat of that 
bread, and drink of that cup." It is in vain that 
Rome appeals to the Scriptures. The blood of 
Christ cannot be separated from the body of Christ, 

Withholding the Cup from the Laity Receives no Support 
from the Early Fathers. — Ig-natius said, A. D. 100 : 



128 America or Kome: Christ or the Pope. 

" There is one bread broken to all, and one chalice 
distributed to all." Chrysostom said, A. D. 390 : 
" There is one body and one cup offered to all." It 
is useless to make further quotations from the early 
fathers — all bear the same testimony. This muti- 
lating" the ordinance of the Lord's Supper is a 
trivial subtility of Rome, and is unworthy the con- 
sideration of Christian people. It denies God's 
Word, it does violence to antiquity, it cheats the 
laity, it compels Romish schoolmen to resort to 
dishonest artifices, it lowers the priesthood and 
brings them into open shame. 

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

In Deharbe's Large Catechism we find the follow- 
ing- : 

"What is the Mass? 

" The Mass is the perpetual sacrifice of the New 
Law, in which Christ offers Himself in an unbloody 
manner, as he once offered Himself in a bloody 
manner on the'cross. 

"In what manner does Christ offer Himself in 
the Mass ? 

"In the Mass, Christ offers Himself in an un- 
bloody manner without suffering* or dj^ing-, under 
the appearance of bread and wine, by the hands of 
the priest, His representative. 

" How do we honor the memory of the saints in 
the Mass ? 

"We honor the memory of the saints in the Mass 
by thanking- God for the grace and glory bestowed 
on them, and by asking- their intercession for us. 

" To whom are the fruits of the Mass applied ? 

" The fruits of the Mass are applied in g-eneral, 
to the whole church, both living- and dead." 




Result of Withholding Cup from the Laity. 



130 America or Eome: Christ or the Pope. 

The Council of Trent decrees : 

'* Whosoever shall say that in the Mass there is 
not offered to God a true and proper sacrifice, or 
that Christ's being- offered is nothing* else than his 
being - given to us to be eaten : let him be accursed. 

"Whoever shall say that the canon of the Mass 
contains errors and therefore oug-ht to be abrog-ated: 
let him be accursed. 

" Whoever shall say that the ceremonies, robes 
and external signs which the Catholic Church uses 
in the celebration of masses are impious vanities 
rather than offices of piety : let him be accursed." 

There is no dog-ma of which the church boasts 
more loudly than the Mass. And yet we need not 
be surprised at this, for she giories in her shame. 
The Mass is so essential an act of religious wor- 
ship that without it on Sunday morning- the Cath- 
olic is not considered safe unless he partakes of it. 
But having- done so, he may spend the rest of the 
day in frolic and revelry. 

Different Kinds of Masses. — The Low Mass, or 
Private Mass, is the ordinary Mass which lasts 
from twenty to thirty minutes. Hig-h Mass is the 
service in which the responses are chanted by the 
choir. A Solemn Hig-h Mass is a long-, pompous 
service used on great occasions, in which there are 
assistants, chanting-, instrumental music and in- 
cense. A Solemn Pontifical Mass is a solemn 
Mass celebrated by the Bishop. A Votive Mass is 
one celebrated for the priest's own devotion or at 
the wish of some of the faithful. A Conventual 
Mass is one celebrated in a convent. ' Masses for 
the Dead may be Low, High, Votive, Solemn, or 
Solemn Pontifical. 



TRAXStJbSTANtlATlON. 131 

The Purposes for which Masses are said Prove them Un- 
scriptural and False.— The pur poses as stated by Ro- 
manists are : 

1. "A sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving - ." 
But the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was pro- 
pitiatory, and not one of praise and thanksgiving - . 

2. "As a daily remembrance of the passion of 
Christ." Then the sacrifice is a commemoration 
of itself. That Christ should be sacrificed in re- 
membrance of his being - sacrificed is a most giar- 
ing - absurdity. 

3. "In memor}' of the saints." The idea of 
sacrificing - the Saviour in honor of the creature ! 
Such a sacrifice receives no credence in the Scrip- 
tures. Christ sacrificed to honor creatures once 
polluted by sin and saved by the grace of God ! 
Truly this is a fearful abomination of Rome. There 
is a vast difference between the sacrifice on Calvar} r 
and the sacrifice on the priest's altar. 

1. Christ offered his own body on the cross, and 
the priest offered a little wafer made of flour. 

2. Christ offered himself as a sacrifice by him- 
self, but the wafer is offered by the priests of Rome. 

3. Christ's sacrifice was a living - and voluntary 
will offering - , but the sacrifice of the Mass has 
neither life nor will in it. 

4. Christ's sacrifice was a bloody offering - , be- 
cause without the shedding - of blood there is no 
remission. But the sacrifice of the Mass is an un- 
bloody offering - , and therefore is the sacrifice of 
Cain. 

5. Christ's sacrifice was once offered in the end 



132 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

of the world to put away sin. As Hebrews de- 
clares : " Who needeth not daily ... to offer 
up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for 
the people's : for this He did once, when He offered up 
Himself y And ag-ain we are told : " But now once 
in the end of the world hath he appeared to put 
away sin by the sacrifice of himself." And ag-ain : 
" Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." 
And again : "But this man, after he had off ered one 
sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the rig-ht hand 
of God." And ag-ain: "Now where remission of 
sin is, there is no more offering- for sin." The 
priests, contrary to this, offer the sacrifice in ten 
thousand places and times. Christ made one sac- 
rifice, which was sufficient. If justice was satis- 
fied, why repeat these oblations? Why continue 
this sacrileg-e and blasphemy ? 

The Scriptures Nowhere Require such a Sacrifice as 
the Mass. — Nowhere in the Christian dispensation 
do we find the office of priest, the altar, and the 
Mass to be offered thereupon. They may distort 
and mistranslate the Scriptures, but they can never 
twist them into the support of the doctrine of the 
Mass. Why will people turn from the real sacrifice 
of Calvary, from the sacrifice made by Christ Him- 
self, which is sufficient, once for all, and by which 
we are sanctified, to the unholy, unscriptural sac- 
rifice of the Mass, which is both useless and blas- 
phemous ? Why turn from God's plan of salvation 
to one invented by the Pope ? Why turn away 
from the Bible doctrines to the dog-mas of man ? 
Why turn from a spiritual worship that blesses the 



TransUbstantiaTion. 133 

soul, to an external worship utterly devoid of a per- 
sonal interest in religion and a personal holiness ? 
WI13' turn from the sacrifice of Christ to the sac- 
rifice of the Mass ? 

Why turn away from the Lord's supper to tran- 
substantiation ? The one requires faith in an ordi- 
nance instituted by Christ, the other requires faith 
in a dogma instituted by Rome. The one requires 
a belief in the bread and wine as symbols of Christ's 
broken body and shed blood ; the other requires, in 
opposition to reason, Scripture and science, a be- 
lief that the body and blood, soul and divinity of 
Christ, are contained in a little wafer. 

Oh, people, let us turn away from this absurd 
dog-ma of Rome to the Lord's Supper — the ordi- 
nance that Jesus instituted just prior to his death ! 
He gave the apostles bread to eat, and wine to 
drink, in remembrance of him, and commanded 
them to teach all who believed on him to do the 
same. Neither Christ nor the apostles, nor their 
immediate followers, used in the celebration of this 
institution priestly vestments, temple courts, tem- 
ple altars, smoking incense, burning candles, long 
processions nor elaborate ritual. In sublime sim- 
plicity it was observed Lord's Day after Lord's Day, 
until Popery asserted its power and changed this 
simple ordinance into a cannibal feast. Thank 
God that Protestantism was born, that the bright, 
pensive dream of ages came — the age of liberty, the 
age of happy homes, the age of freedom of wor- 
ship, the age of biblical research, an age in which 
people are turning away from man-made creeds to 



134 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

primitive Christianity, an age in which consecrated 
men and women are trying" to restore the apostolic 
religion with all its ordinances, doctrines and 
fruits. By so doing-, the Lord's Supper is seen in 
its true lig"ht and celebrated in its true significance ; 
it is celebrated as a commemorative institution in 
which we remember Christ's suffering's and death, 
in which we remember him historically, personally 
and as coming" again. All who partake of it in the 
proper spirit are proclaiming" the Lord's death, are 
witnesses to their Master's victories, are commemo- 
rating" an event that refutes infidelity, and that 
will stand in all its primeval beauty and significance 
long after the dogma of transubstantiation has 
been overthrown, and Babylon, the Mother of 
Abominations, has fallen. 

See Appendix No. 5, " Adoraticn of Host." 
See Appendix No. 6, "Extreme Unction." 



PURGATORY AND INDULGENCES. 



In Deharbe's Catechism No. 2, page 152, we are 
told in order to receive the Sacrament of Penance 
worthily, five things are necessary : Examination 
of Conscience, Contrition, Resolution of Amend- 
ment, Confession, and Satisfaction or Penance. 
The subject of "Satisfaction" or "Penance" 
shall be discussed as a prelude to our lecture on 
Purgatory. On page 160 of the same catechism, 
we read : 

" (Q) What is satisfaction in the Sacrament of 
Penance ? 

"(A) Satisfaction is the performance of the 
penance given us by the Confessor 

" (Q) Why does the Confessor give us a pen- 
ance ? 

" (A) He gives us a penance : first, that we 
may satisfy for the temporal punishment of our 
sins ; and second, for the amendment of our life. 

" (Q) Does not God remit the punishment of 
sin when he forgives the sin itself ? 

" (A) He remits the eternal punishment of the 
sin, but not always the temporal punishment. 

" (Q) What is the temporal punishment of our 
^ins? 

"(A) The temporal punishment of our sins is 
that punishment which we must suffer either here 
on earth or afterward in purgatory. 

(135) 



136 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

" (Q) What may we expect if we do not make 
satisfaction ? 

" (A) We may expect to suffer the more in pur- 
gatory." 

According- to this doctrine, which is everywhere 
studied and acknowledged by Romanists, when 
men sin they incur the wrath of God. When they 
repent and receive the Sacrament of Absolution 
they are forgiven, but not altogether. There are 
two punishments for sin, the eternal and the tem- 
poral. Now by the Sacrament of Penance the 
eternal is remitted, but the temporal still remains 
due ; and, says Dr. Wiseman, "Penitential works, 
such as fasting, almsdeeds, 'contrite weeping and 
fervent prayer have the power of averting that 
temporal punishment; that it consequently becomes 
a part of all true repentance to try to satisfy this 
Divine justice by penitential works." 

The Council of Trent declares : "If any man 
shall say that the whole penalty is always remit- 
ted by God, together with the guilt, and that the 
only satisfaction of penitents is faith whereby they 
embrace that Christ has made satisfaction for 
them: let him be accursed;" and again, "If any 
shall say, that as regards temporal punishments, 
men can by no means, through the merits of Christ, 
make satisfaction for sins by the patient endurance 
of punishments inflicted by him or enjoined by the 
priest, or voluntarily undertaken, such as fasting, 
prayers, alms, and other works of piety, and so that 
a new life alone is the best repentance : let him be 
accursed." 



PuRG\TORY AND INDULGENCES. 137 

This is the doctrine of satisfaction in a nutshell. 
It arises from the notion that God punishes man in 
two ways, eternally and temporally. Man must do 
something- to appease the wrath of God as respects, 
the temporal punishment — the priest determines 
and devises what this shall be ; he can apportion 
the satisfaction or penance by his judgrnent, based 
on the sins confessed. He determines what is suffi- 
cient or not sufficient to satisfy God, and lest he 
should be a novice in determining- this, Peter Dens, 
in his Theology, has added a long - listof the works 
of satisfaction practiced in the Church, that may 
serve as sug-g-estions to the priest in determining- 
the satisfaction that must be made by the penitent, 
such as reciting- litanies, reading- the penitential 
psalms, hearing- masses, visiting- churches, fasting-, 
rising- earlier, enduring- cold, praying-, wearing- 
sackcloth, making- presents of money, clothes, 
food, etc ; as is seen in the illustration, " Doing- 
Penance" (pag-e 139), where a young- lady is coerced 
into giving- all her jewelry to the convent, and to 
g-o barefoot during- the reciting- of litanies, psalms, 
etc. 

Let us now see how gross a perversion this is 
from common sense, and the truth as it is in Jesus. 

First. It Requires Man to do More than God Enjoins. — 
Every day has its duties. Our present duty is to 
do all we can and to do it to the g-lory of God. If 
we must make satisfaction to-day for our misgiv- 
ing's of yesterday, and make satisfaction to-morrow 
for our sins of to-day, of what profit is it ? " Suffi- 



138 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

cient unto the day is the evil thereof." God not 
only does not enjoin such a doctrine, but tells us 
that if any man shall add unto the thing's in God's 
book, God shall add unto him the plagues which 
are written in His book ; and if any man shall take 
away from His book, God shall take away his part 
out of the book of life, and out of the holy city. 

Second. It is a Deceptive Doctrine. — A man con- 
fesses to a priest and receives absolution, but let me 
ask : Can the priest discern the heart of the con- 
fessor ? Does he know whether he is sincere or 
whether he is hypocritical ? Suppose he should 
grant absolution to one who ought not to be ab- 
solved? How can the mortal priest know the 
counsels of God, and determine how much satisfac- 
tion is necessary to atone for sins committed ? 
What is his absolution worth ? What must be the 
effect of the absolution he grants, and the satisfac- 
tion he imposes ? It will deceive multitudes ; it will 
say to them " Peace and pardon ! " when there is 
no peace and pardon ; it will create unbelief in the 
heart of the penitent as soon as he arises to the 
point of intelligence that he may comprehend the 
arrogance and blasphemy of the priest, who would 
pretend to thrust himself into the seat of Christ, 
and do what only He who searches the heart can do. 

Third Is God's mercy Divided into Halves? — Is it 
a quality of mercy to say : "I will remit to you the 
eternal punishment due for your sins, but to gratify 
my revenge I shall retain a portion of the temporal 
punishment"? Is this like God? What would 
we think of an enemy, who after we had confessed 



Purgatory and Indulgences. 139 

our guilt, acknowledged our error and requested for- 
giveness, would say, "I will forgive you, but for 
sweet revenge's sake, I shall inflict upon you a 
punishment, for which you must make satisfac- 
tion " ? Would this be the spirit of forgiveness ? 
God is greater than man, and when He receives us 
into His favor, He pardons our sins and remembers 
our iniquities no more. 

Fourth. This Doctrine is Opposed to the Old and 
New Testament Scriptures. — Nowhere in the Bible do 
we read of any priest, prophet, or apostle prescrib- 
ing penance as a satisfaction for sin ; our Saviour 
never prescribed anything of the kind. This doc- 
trine contradicts all those passages of Scripture 
where Christ is represented as atoning for pur sins. 
"I am He that blotteth out all thy transgressions 
for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins." 
44 This man [Christ], after he had offered one sac- 
rifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand 
of God." " Who his own self bare our sins in his 
own body on the tree." " The blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanses from all sin." I would ask, 
if a man be cleansed from all sin, what more does 
he need in the way of satisfaction or penance ? 
" There is therefore now no condemnation to them 
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit." If there is no condem- 
nation, then why does the priest impose penance, or 
satisfaction, as a punishment due for sin ? If there 
is no condemnation, then there is no punishment 
due, and consequently the satisfaction or penance 
is useless. Verily, it seems one of the prime ob- 



140 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

jects of Rome is, to rob Christ of his glory as the 
Saviour of sinners, and to give that glory, at least 
in part, to the priest who imposes his power upon 
his deluded followers. 

PURGATORY. 

The satisfactions which are due to God for the 
sins of men, which cannot be made up during life, 
must be made up in purgatory. Roman Catholics 
are taught that they will have to pass through 
this peculiar state of existence, because they will 
need more or less purging. In purgatory the sat- 
isfaction remaining due to God will be made up, 
God's justice will be amply satisfied, and the Chris- 
tian, being set free, will be ready for heaven. 

What is Purgatory ? 

On page 33 of Deharbe's Large Catechism, the 
following questions are asked : 

"(Q) What is Purgatory ? 

"(A) Purgatory is a place or state of punish- 
ment wherein by suffering for a time souls are pu- 
rified. 

"(Q) What souls go to Purgatory ? 

"(A) The souls of those who have to atone 
for venial sins, or for the temporal punishments 
due to past sins, the guilt of which has been re- 
mitted." 

The first Council that mentions the subject of 
purgatory is the Council of Florence, A. D. 1438. 
This Council decreed that, "If any true penitents 
shall depart this life in the love of God, before 
they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of 



Purgatory and Indulgences. 141 

penance for faults of commission and omission, 
their souls are purified after death, by the pains 
of purgatory." 

The Council of Trent, speaking- on this subject, 
says: "Since the Catholic Church, instructed by 
the Holy Spirit from the sacred writings and the 
ancient traditions of the fathers, hath taught in 
holy councils, and lastly, in this oecumenical coun- 
cil, that there is a purgatory, and that the souls 
detained there are assisted by the suffrages of the 
faithful, but especially by the most acceptable sac- 
rifice of the mass, this holy council commands all 
bishops to have a diligent care that the sound doc- 
trine of purgatory delivered to us by venerable 
fathers and sacred councils be believed, maintained, 
taught, and everywhere preached." 

The Catechism of Trent explains the matter as 
follows : '• There is a purgatorial fire in which the 
souls of the pious are tormented for a certain time 
and cleansed, in order that an opening may be made 
for them for their heavenly home, into which 
nothing defiled can enter." 

Cardinal Bellarmine writes thus: "Purgatory 
is a certain place in which a person's soul is purged 
after this life which has not been purged in it, so 
that being thus purged, he may be able to enter 
heaven." 

The Seraphic Doctor, Bonaventura, says : " Sins 
may be remitted, not only in this world but in 
purgatory, and since there is no room there for 
sacraments, punishing or cleansing fire is called. 
in aid," 



142 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

We read in the Douay Catechism the following - : 
"Whither go such as die in venial sin, or not 
having* fully satisfied the punishment due to their 
mortal sin ? Ans. To purgatory, till they have 
made full satisfaction for them, and then to heaven. 
What is purgatory ? Ans. A place of punishment 
in the other life where souls suffer for a time, 
before they can go to heaven. " 

In Peter Dens' Theology, the question is asked, 
" What is purg-atory?' 1 And the answer is, "It 
is a place in which the souls of departed just people, 
which were obnoxious to temporal punishments, 
endure sufficient suffering-." 

Pope Pius IV. declares : "I do constantly hold 
that there is a purg-atory, and that the souls there 
detained are helped by the suffrages of the faith- 
ful." 

Thus we see from their Councils, theologians, 
private authors, and catechisms, the essential point 
of the doctrine is, that Christian souls, having sin 
upon them at the moment of death, pass into pur- 
gatory, a state of expiatory suffering, in which 
they can be helped by the prayers and good works 
of the living believers. 

Where is Purgatory ? 

Their authors are at variance on this subject. 
They are doubtful as to whether purgatory is in 
this world, or under the earth, or in the air, or in 
hell, or its vicinity. 

Gregory the Great believed it to be in the center 
of the earth, and considered the eruptions of Vesu- 



Purgatory and Indulgences. 143 

vius and iEtna as flames arising- from it. Bellar- 
mine and Bebe placed it with the demons of the 
air, between heaven and earth. Damien and others 
thoug-ht it mig-ht be in some flaming- cavern or icy 
stream. 

According- to the story of Enus, as told by Paris, 
there was a purg-atory somewhere in Ireland, and 
being- protected by the Son of God, Enus was per- 
mitted to behold some of the sig-hts therein. Men 
and women in a nude state were seen lying- on the 
earth, transfixed with red-hot nails ; some were 
lashed with whips by demons ; wretched-looking- 
drag-ons gnawed some of them with fiery teeth ; 
flaming- serpents pierced some ; enormous toads 
with ug-ly beaks extracted the hearts of others ; 
some were hung- with chains throug-h their feet 
and hands over sulphurous flames ; some were put 
on iron hooks and suspended over red-hot pits ; 
some were roasted on red-hot pans and others 
broiled in furnaces ; others were dropped in a sul- 
phurous well which threw them up like sparkling- 
scintillations into the air, and then received them 
again. The sig-hts that Enus saw were most ap- 
palling-, and the groans that he heard were stunning- 
t j his ear — and such a purg-atory is depicted as being- 
somewhere in Ireland ! 

The Character op the Punishment. 

Peter Dens says the punishment is two-fold : one 
of loss and one of sense. The punishment of loss 
is merely a delay of the beatific confession ; and 



144 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope 

the punishment of sense in purgatory is caused by 
material fire. 

St. Thomas, Bellarmine and others teach that 
the punishments of purgatory are indeed more 
severe than the greatest punishments of this world; 
they teach that it is a very grievous and bitter 
punishment ; and hence the solicitude of the 
Church, which exhorts to the greatest'satisfaction, 
and to earn indulgences, that this terrible punish- 
ment may be lessened. 

According to Damien and others, the wretched 
inhabitants must pass in rapid and painful transi- 
tion from a cool to a tepid bath, from the torrid to 
the frigid zone, from the freezing to the boiling 
elements. Another writer speaks of a great valley 
of vast dimensions covered with roasting furnaces 
on the left side, and with icy cold, hail, and snow 
on the right, and that this whole valley was filled 
with human souls, which seemed like a tempest 
tossed in all directions. 

According to Thurcals' adventure, purgatory is 
a great subterranean cavern like a mighty valley, 
which contains flaming caldrons filled with pitch, 
blazing sulphur, and other fiery materials, to boil 
and roast the souls for the expiation of their sins, 
and out from this furnace came a stench which 
caused those poor and disembodied souls to cough, 
and hiccough, and sneeze. After passing through 
a variety of these furnaces they were subjected to 
a number of frosty and shivering pools that 
skirted the eastern extremity of the valley; removed 
from these the sufferers had to pass over a bridge 




Scene in Purgatory. 



146 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

studded with sharp nails with the points turned 
upwards ; the souls had to walk barefoot on this 
rough road, and many eased their feet by using 
their hands; others rolled with the whole body on 
these perforating" spikes, till, pierced and bloody, 
they worked their painful way over the thorny 
path. Passing- this defile — a labor of many years 
— the spirits, forgetful of the pains endured 
in the boiling* caldrons, the icy regions, and 
the thorny path, escaped to heaven, the Mount 
of Joy. Such are some of the visions of pur- 
gatory recorded by some of their venerable 
theological writers. The tales are as silly as pagan 
mythology. The Protestantism of modern days 
has exposed these ridiculous ideas, and made the 
adherents of Romanism somewhat shy in recogniz- 
ing- so many terrible delineations ; but the state- 
ments, however silly and ridiculous, once obtained 
the undivided belief and respect of the Popes, car- 
dinals and their colleagues, and a denial of them 
would once have been rank heresy. Their modern 
theologians are still of the opinion that the pun- 
ishments are exceedingly severe, and are caused by 
material fire ; and these punishments, we are told 
in Deharbe's Catechism, will be more severe if 
proper satisfactions are not made on earth. 

The Purgatorial Punishments may be Lessened, 

and the Time Shortened by the Prayers, 

Alms, Sacrifices, etc., of the Living. 

In Deharbe's Large Catechism, page 41, we are 
told : " The souls in purgatory are assisted by our 




Scene in Purgatory. 



148 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

prayers, almsdeeds, the application of indulgences, 
and by other good works, but especially b}^ the 
Holy Sacrifice of Mass." 

Mr. Dens tells us that the constant and universal 
practice of the Church proves that the purgatorial 
sufferings are lessened by the prayers and alms of 
those on earth. In one of the catechisms from 
which I have quoted, on page 147, we are told that 
"the Mass is applied to the whole Church, both to 
the living and to the dead." The Council of Trent 
states : ■•' Let the bishop see to it that the prayers 
of the living, sacrifices, and other works of piety 
which have been wanted to be rendered by the be- 
lievers for the departed, are done piously and de- 
voutly, according to the institutions of the Church; 
and that those which are due by the wills of 
testators, and otherwise, be not rendered in a per- 
functory manner, but diligently and punctually, by 
priests and other ministers who are bound to this 
service." 

The Origin of Purgatory — A Pagan Institu- 
tion. 

Plato, three centuries before Christ, taught that, 
at death, those who were purified went to a place 
of happiness, those who were wicked to hell, and 
those who were penitent to a place of suffering, 
out of which they were to be delivered by the 
pra} 7 ers of friends. Homer and Virgil taught 
the same doctrine. Virgil, who appears to be the 



150 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

father of the system, describes all three states, and 
in the following* words pictures purgatory : 

"Nor death itself can wholly wash their stains, 
But long- contracted filth even in their souls remains; 
The relics of inveterate vice they bear, 
And spots of sin obscene in every face they wear ; 
For this are various penances enjoined, 
And some are hung- to bleach upon the wind, i 

Some plunged in waters, others purg-ed in fires, 
Till all the dreg's are drained, and all the rust expires." 

The introduction of this dog-ma into Christendom 
was as slow as its movements towards perfection ; 
it did not assume form until the fifth century. 
Gregory has by several authors been represented 
as the discoverer of purgatory. Otho, a learned 
historian of the twelfth century, speaks of Gregory's 
fabulous dialogues as the foundation of the pur- 
gatorial fiction of modern daj^s. In Otho's time, 
this belief was not universal, for the historian 
says : "Some believe in a purgatorial place situated 
in the infernal regions, where souls are consigned 
to darkness, or roasted with the fire of expiation." 
Thus we see, in the twelfth century this was the 
belief of some, but not all; the people were divided; 
some believed the dogma, and some rejected it. 

These earlier speculations and opinions of pur- 
gatory finally fell into the hands of Aquinas and* 
other schoolmen, and they finished the fabric 
which others had founded. They furnished the 
skeleton with flesh and blood, form and color ; they 
determined the punishments, and in a measure 
fixed the place of the purgatorial mansions ; and 



Purgatory and Indulgences. i5i 

thus out of pagan mythology, and the darkness 
and superstition of the middle ages, has grown 
this most powerful and favorite dogma of Ro- 
manism. 

Purgatory is the Mother of Indulgences. 

Indulgences, prayers for the dead, and masses, 
stand identified with the system. As soon as pur- 
gatory was adopted in the Church, means were in- 
vented to release the sufferers and to transfer them 
to paradise. Had it not been for purgatory we 
would not have been troubled with indulgences. 
Had the righteous penitent not been shut up in a 
fictitious prison, there would have been no need of 
inventing* a fictitious key to unlock the doors. 

Transubstantiation changed the Lord's Supper. 
Indulgences were used for the living-, why not for 
the dead ? Soon masses, high and low, were offered 
for the repose of the souls in purgatory, and they 
were offered to suit the liberality of the friends of 
the deceased, and indulgences were finally freely 
used to free the souls from purg-atory. 

What is an Indulgence f —We are told in Deharbe's 
Catechism that " an indulgence is a remission of 
the temporal punishment of our sins, which the 
Church grants us outside the sacrament of pen- 
ance." Then follows the important question : 
"Can indulgences be made use of to the souls in 
purg-atory ?" " Ans. Yes, all indulgences which the 
Pope has indicated for that purpose." 

We have already seen, according to their Coun^ 
cils, that prayers, alms, masses, etc., should be 



152 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

made by the faithful for the release of the souls in 
purgatory. 

Pope Leo X. says, " We have thought proper to 
signify to you that the Bishop of Rome is able to 
grant to the faithful in Christ, indulgence either 
in this life or in purgatory — out of the superabund- 
ant merits of Christ and his saints." The Pope is 
the supreme dispenser of indulgences ; this is 
taught both by the Pope and the catechisms. The 
bishop may grant indulgences in his diocese, and 
the archbishop throughout the whole province. 
The bishop has this authority through the Pope, 
and the Pope has it by divine right. 

How do these Indulgences Operate f — An indulgence 
may be received by a man before he enters purga- 
tory, and so be happy. Secondly, an indulgence 
may operate retrospectively in regard to vicarious 
work performed by one man for another. Chari- 
table Christians, who sympathize with their rela- 
tives in purgatory, have the power to obtain 
through the bishop^ or Pope, an indulgence for 
them, and by doing certain works of alms, prayers 
and the like, obtain a commutation of the sentence 
for their loved ones in that fiery region ; they may, 
by these works and alms, secure an indulgence for 
a certain number of days and years. 

Various Uses hayk been Made of Indulgences. 

A few of these we shall here mention. 

1. To Excite People to Engage in Crusades. — Urban 
II., in the eleventh century, invented indulgences 
as a recompense for those who went in person upon 



Purgatory and Indulgences. 153 

the glorious enterprise of conquering the Holy 
Land. They were afterward granted to those who 
hired soldiers for that purpose, and finally were 
bestowed on such as gave money to that end. The 
expenses of the crusade, as well as men and arms, 
were all furnished with an enthusiasm by the 
hopes held out to the credulous of the indulgences 
in purgatory. I am constrained to say, considering 
the sacrifice it must have caused the crusaders to 
leave their homes, friends, business, and country, 
and to expose themselves to the dangers, severe 
climates, and terrible battles, that they deserved 
the munificent indulgences promised by the pon- 
tiffs. 

2. By the Means of Indulgences, Popes and Councils 
Excited their Followers to Exterminate Heretics. — All 
were regarded as heretics who differed from them 
in the faith. The Fourth General Council held at 
Rome under Innocent III. decreed " that Catholics 
that take the badge of the cross and gird them- 
selves for the extermination of heretics, shall enjoy 
that indulgence and be fortified with that holy 
privilege which is granted to them that go to the 
help of the Holy Land." This decree was put in 
practice. Pope Innocent and his Council hired 
men to kill heretics by offering them indulgences 
as a reward. 

3. Indulgences were Purchased to Secure the Remission 
of Sins. — According to the " Tax-book of the Apos- 
tolic Chancery," sums were levied for the pardon 
of particular sins, a long list of which is named 
therein, and the plenary indulgence reads : " All 



154 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

who are contrite and confess are to put in a chest 
a sum of money, gold or silver." This same is reg- 
ulated by a scale of prices, and every crime is set 
down at its price. 

4. They are Used to Obtain Money to Build Churches. — 
Some of the largest cathedrals belonging - to the 
Roman Church trace their origin to this source. 
Pope Iyeo, in order to carry on the magnificent 
structure of St. Peter's, at Rome, published indul- 
gences to all such as should contribute money to it. 
This magnificent structure stands as a monument 
and proof of the utility of indulgences. Certain 
endowments of land, and privileges granted to 
the Church, in nearly every quarter of the world, 
may be traced to the superstitious dread of purga- 
tory, which was alleviated by the hopes held out 
in indulgences for value received. 

5. Indulgences are Granted to Confraternities. — A 
confraternity is an association of brethren for reli- 
gious purposes. To encourage such associations 
the Pope grants to all who belong to them an indul- 
gence. There is the Confraternity of the Rosary, 
the Confraternity of the Scapular, etc. I have in 
my possession a pamphlet, "The Association for 
the Propagation of Faith," in which various indul- 
gences are granted to the members, and especially 
to the priests who are earnest advocates of the 
association. 

• 6. Indulgences have for Centuries been the Means of 
Delivering Souls from Purgatory. — Under Pope Leo 
X., a Dominican monk named Tetzel went about 
publicly offering indulgences for sale ; he openly 



Purgatory and Indulgences. 155 

told the people that the souls confined in purga- 
tory, for whose redemption indulgences are pur- 
chased, as soon as the money tinkles in the chest 
instantly escape from that place of torment and 
ascend to heaven: "For twelve pence you may 
redeem the soul of your father out of purgatory, 
and are you so ungrateful that you will not res- 
cue the soul of your parent from torment ? If 
you had but one coat, you ought to strip that 
instantly and sell it, in order to purchase such 
benefits." There was no scruple about this sell- 
ing of indulgences ; Tetzel went so far as to pro- 
claim that he had saved more souls from hell by 
his indulgences than St. Peter had converted to 
Christianity by his preaching, 

It was this great abuse of indulgences that con- 
tributed to the reformation of religion in Germany, 
and caused Luther to raise his voice and pub- 
lish his Theses. The Reformation checked, but 
did not stop, the sale of indulgences ; in Romish 
countries there is scarcel}- a cathedral built, pil- 
grimage undertaken, or jubilee announced, in which 
the sale of indulgences is not practiced. 

The Holy Mother Church furnishes many means 
of gaining indulgences. According to a Catholic 
book of devotion, the short petition, "Sweet heart 
of Mary, save me !" gives 300 days indulgence ev- 
ery time it is repeated. I copy from the infallibly 
authorized Book of the Scapular : To those who 
wear the scapular during life, Mary makes this 
promise : "I, their glorious mother, on the Satur- 
day after their death, will descend to purgatory 



156 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

and deliver those whom I shall find there, and take 
them up to the holy mountain of eternal life." A 
short prayer at the crucifix which stands at the 
center of the Coliseum obtains a large indulgence; 
to kiss the medal on the angelic chaplet, 100 days ; 
to visit a Carmelite church on Saturday procures 87 
years indulgence, and the remission of two-sevenths 
of all sins ; to wear a blue scapular gives full in- 
dulgence, cancels all sins, and gives a free ticket 
to paradise. These are a few of the many means 
of receiving indulgences. All Christendom shares 
in indulgences, but France is the great mart of 
papal masses for the dead. 

The twin doctrines of purgatory and indulgences 
are the sources of immense wealth to Romanism. 
The clergy, seated with a pretended authority to 
God himself, proclaim to remit or retain the pun- 
ishments due to sin. They claim to hold the keys 
by which the treasuries of the merits of Christ and 
His saints are unlocked, and they distribute them 
in the form of indulgences, and they, only, can 
say masses for the souls enslaved in purgatory. 
The dread of the punishments in purgatory and 
sympathy for the departed friends, represented as 
enduring the terrible tortures of that prison-house, 
impel the superstitious Romanist to attribute great 
power to the clergy, to abandon every thought of 
giving him offense, to obey him in all things, and 
to give liberally for his favors, and for indulgences. 

As the devout Romanist approaches death he 
trembles at the thought of purgatory, and believes 
in the sacrifice of masses for his speedy deliverance 



Purgatory and Indulgences. 157 

from the purging- fires ; and if he is rich he may be 
induced to leave a large sum to -pa.y the clergy for 
masses, or perhaps he will establish a monaster}', 
or donate a large amount of real estate. This is 
much better, he thinks, than to burn and freeze for 
years and years in purgatory. 

If he be poor, he desires to have his soul deliv- 
ered from purgatory, and, therefore, has a strong 
inducement to take from his widow and children 
that which is necessary to their comfort and exist- 
ence, to pay for masses for the repose of his soul ; 
and after the loved one has departed, the poor com- 
panion, scarcely able to keep the little ones from 
starving, is tormented with the reflection that the 
bosom friend is now writhing in the torments of 
purgator}', and therefore every effort must be put 
forth, every economy practiced, and every sacrifice 
made to hire the priest to say masses for the de- 
parted soul. 

Numerous instances of this kind, sufficient to 
bring tears to your eyes, are in my possession. 
Recently a poor man in Canada lost his wife, and 
being too poor to pay to have a funeral service 
sung the day she was buried, and fearing she was 
wrapped in the flames of purgatory, asked the 
priest to say mass for the repose of her soul. The 
priest replied, " Give me five dollars, and I will say 
mass to-morrow." The poor man answered, "I 
am too poor to give you five dollars." "Well," 
said the priest, " as I passed your place this morn- 
ing I saw two beautiful pigs ; give me one of them, 
and I will say five low masses." The poor man 



158 America or Kome: Chris? or the Fore. 

said, "These pig's were given me by a charitable 
neighbor, that I might be able to feed my poor 
children next winter." But the heartless priest 
had no compassion on the poor man ; he took the 
little pig, and the next day had it daintily roasted 
for a feast given by him to some friendly priests, 
and it is reported by one present, that the priest 
said at the feast : "If we cannot take the soul of 
the poor woman out of purgatory, we will, at all 
events, eat a fine pig," and at his wit the priests 
filled the room with laughter, thus showing their 
approval of his conduct. 

Mr. Chiniquy tells us that at the death of his 
father, his mother was left with three little chil- 
dren, and with some cumbersome debts ; and from 
this poor woman, who had no money to pay for 
masses to have her husband's soul delivered from 
purgatory, the priest took away her only cow, 
whose milk and butter were the principal part of 
her children's food, and, says he: "When the 
priest drove the cow away from us, I screamed with 
despair, and said to my mother, 'What will become 
of us ? — he is taking the cow away !' My mother 
also cried with grief, as she saw the priest taking 
away the one means which heaven had left her to 
feed her children." 

In chapter twenty-five of "Fifty Years in Rome," 
we are told that more than ten million dollars are 
expended annually in North America to help the 
souls out of purgatory. Masses are said in Canada 
at twenty-five cents each, and in many parts of the 
United States at one dollar each, and we are told 



Purgatory and Indulgences. 159 

in this same chapter that it is a common practice 
for the bishops in the United States to have masses 
said in Canada for the departed souls, and thereby 
make seventy-five cents on each mass. For many 
years it was a common practice for the venerable 
bishops of Canada to send to Paris to have masses 
said at five cents each, thereby saving- twenty cents 
on each mass they were paid to celebrate. The 
infidel priests in Paris are poorer than in America, 
and are glad to say masses at five cents each. 

The mass traffic is enormous, and it is a fact 
that this trade in masses is still conducted on a 
large scale, and numerous instances are on record 
where priests have been paid to say mass and have 
pocketed the money without saying- them. If, 
therefore, the millions of dollars expended annual- 
ly for masses do not benefit the souls in purgatory, 
they enrich the unmarried priests, the pious bish- 
ops and holy Popes, in whose hands the money 
may remain until the day of judg-ment, when they 
will be called to render account for their unprofit- 
able stewardship. 

James Shaw tells us, that when he was at school 
in Dublin, "the late O'Connell died in Genoa, 
Italy. His remains were broug-ht back to Ireland, 
and lay in state in Marlboroug-h Street Catholic 
Chapel for a week. Numerous masses for the de- 
liverance of his soul out of purgatory were offered 
by the priesthood at enormous expense to the peo- 
ple. At the same time a sermon on the death of 
O'Connell was selling in the Catholic book-stores of 
the city, by the celebrated Father Ventura, an 



160 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Italian priest, who said : 'O'Connell was so faith- 
ful a son of the Church that he went straight to 
heaven without going* to purgatory.' But the 
priests were making- money on the dead man's soul." 

This is the more absurd, when we know the doc- 
trine of purgatory is not taught in God's Word. 
Upon the proof-texts quoted to support the 
theory of purgatory Romanists are at variance. 
What one adopts another rejects ; what one 
approves another condemns. Several of their au- 
thors agree on the passage : "That the sin against 
the Holy Ghost shall be forgiven, neither in this 
world nor in the world to come," and these critics 
claim that as this sin will not be forgiven in the 
world to come, it implies that there are some sins 
that will be forgiven in the world to come ; but the 
unpardonableness of one sin in the world to come 
does not imply the pardonableness of another, and 
some of their brightest thinkers have had the dis- 
cernment to see this, and the candor to confess it. 
Mark and Luke have explained Matthew's mean- 
ing by stating that this blasphemy against the 
Holy Spirit shall never be forgiven, and have there- 
by exploded this unscriptural idea of purgatory. 

Romanists quote in support of purgatory various 
proof-texts from the apocrypha, but as evangelical 
Protestants reject the apocrypha, it is useless to 
mention these proof-texts and refute them. These 
books were uninspired, and cannot prove the truth 
of any doctrine. 

It now remains for us to show that the doctrines 



Purgatory and Indulgences. 161 

of purgatory and indulgences are against both 
reason and the Scriptures. 

1. They Undermine All Motives to Virtue. — If the 
doctrine of purgatory be true, what is the use of 
fighting the good fight of faith, to struggle against 
temptation, to subdue our flesh, to clothe ourselves 
in the spirit of Christ, to engage in prayers, to 
labor to extend the kingdom of God ? 

I say, if this doctrine be true, if this unavoidable 
barrier lies before us, what is the use of being a 
Christian here, what the use of struggling against 
nature, and then be compelled to enter purgatory 
and suffer for it ? Its tendency is to undermine 
virtue and goodness, to remove all motives to holi- 
ness, and to bring men into a careless, profligate, 
and abandoned life. It gives them a license to sin, 
leads them to postpone repentance or neglect it 
altogether. Its tendency is to lead men to continue 
in sin under the vain hope of introducing them, at 
death, to the favor of God, by the payment of a 
few pounds of silver or gold. If I believed it, I 
would fling aside effort and do away with contest, 
and say, " After all I shall have to take my place 
in purgatory and suffer, so let me enjoy while I 
can." 

2. The Doctrines of Purgatory and Indulgences Vio- 
late God's Mercy. — How can a merciful God deal 
with us thus ? Surely our God is a God of mercy, 
and if his mercy endureth forever, it is not conso^ 
nant with it that we should be required to suffer 
the flames of purgatory after enduring the afflic- 
tions, bearing the crosses, and complying with th§ 

u 



162 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

conditions of salvation in this world. We are told 
that our God is a God of peace, a God of all com- 
fort, the Father of mercies, a Father that pitieth 
his children ; and this God would certainly be- 
come a cruel God to retain a part of his forgive- 
ness, and to cast his children into purgatory, and 
there ransack every part of their hearts for venial 
sins, and make them suffer until they paid the 
utmost farthing - , or until their friends secured their 
deliverance through indulgences. 

3. These Doctrines rob God of the Honor due Him. — 
He is our Creator, Preserver, and Redeemer ; in 
Him we move, and have our being. He is the sole 
awarder of His own grace, the sole dispenser of 
His own promises, and the sole judge of His re- 
wards and punishments due the righteous and 
the wicked ; and for any man to substitute these 
doctrines is to rob God of His honor and take away 
from Him one of His chiefest attributes. 

4. These Doctrines are Opposed to the Scriptures. — 
They receive no support from the book of inspira- 
tion. The holy Popes and their Councils have not 
been able to find any foundation for these dogmas 
in the Bible. The body of a heretic was never 
more unmercifully mangled than are the Scriptures 
disjointed and distorted to patronize purgatory and 
the indulgences. 

Nowhere are we told in God's Word that the 
merits of Christ are at the disposal of the Pope 
or of the Church ; nowhere does the Bible state 
that the clergy are, permitted to carry on this sin- 
ful system of distributing the merits of Christ 



Purgatory and Indulgences. 163 

amongst men ; nowhere does the Bible state that to 
give repose to souls in purgatory masses must be 
said, pilgrimages taken, beads counted and alms 
given. In the Old Testament there is not the 
most distant intimation of a purgatory, or of masses 
being said for the repose of the souls therein. Had 
there been any such practice there certainly would 
have been some account of it in those numerous 
records of the death and burial of vast multitudes. 
In the New Testament there are records of many 
prayers, but not one petition offered for the dead. 
If it had been a wholesome thing to pray for the 
dead, would not Christ or the apostles have made 
some mention of it ? 

5. They are Subversive to the Atonement of Christ. — . 
If Christ died for us and redeemed us from sin and 
hell, what need we of further meritorious suffer- 
ings. " There is therefore no condemnation to 
them that are in Christ Jesus " — that is plain ; 
there is no condemnation, no wrath, no purgatorial 
punishment. "Being justified by his blood, we 
shall be saved from wrath through him " — nothing 
said about the wrath and fire of purgatory. "Who- 
soever believeth on the Son of God hath life, and 
is passed from condemnation." " He that believeth 
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and 
shall not come into condemnation ; but is passed 
from death unto life." The fact is, these dogmas 
are antagonistic to the whole plan of salvation and 
the provisions of God's mercy. If God's plan is 
complete, there is no need of a purging fire. 

6. They are Against the Mediatorship of Christ. — 



164 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Purgatory, and the indulgences consequent there- 
upon, lead men to invent all sorts of mediators 
between themselves and God. They lead men to 
set up saints and angels, to substitute all manner 
of objects and creatures for prayer, and thereby 
obscure the one only mediator between God and 
man, Christ Jesus. Christ came as this mediator ; 
He came to pay the penalty of sin; He came to redeem 
us from sin. His name is the only name under 
heaven whereby we can be saved, and if this be 
true, how useless it is for a poor miserable sinner 
to seek out salvation by a measured portion of 
pains, and penalties, and indulgences. 

7. These Doctrines of Purgatory are Opposed to the 
Many Passages of Scripture which Teach that the Destiny 
of the Spirit is Determined at the Death of the Body. — 
Jesus said to the thief, "This day thou shalt be 
with me in paradise"; there was no intervening 
place between earth and paradise. We are told 
that Lazarus died, and on the wings of angels was 
carried into Abraham's bosom ; nothing said about 
purgatory, nothing said about masses being offered 
for the repose of the soul of the thief, or of Lazarus. 
The Good Book declares, "Whatsoever thy hand 
findeth to do, do it with thy might ; for there is no 
work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in 
the grave, whither thou goest " — nothing said 
about going through any purging process. And, 
lest we should make a mistake, Christ declares, 
" He that is righteous, let him be righteous still ; 
and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still " — no 
purging process in these Scriptures. 



Purgatory and Indulgences. 165 

We read in Revelation, " Blessed are the dead 
which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith 
the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors " — 
nothing- said about purgatorial fires before enter- 
ing- that rest. Paul speaks of his desire to be 
absent from the body and present with the Lord ; 
no making- expiation for certain offenses in purga- 
tory. " For we know that if our earthly house of 
this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building- of 
God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." "It is appointed unto men once to die, 
but after this the judgment." Had there been a 
state of cleansing and purgation, Paul had an 
opportunity to describe it here. Speaking of his 
death, the apostle says, "From henceforth there 
is laid up a crown of righteousness for me." It 
seems by this, he expected to pass at once into a 
state of joy. He was no exception, no privileged 
character, because he declares that crowns of right- 
eousness are henceforth laid up for all those that 
desire the appearing of the Lord. 

A thousand passages could be quoted to show 
that there is no intervening purgatorial tabernacle 
where there must needs be meritorious sufferings. 

The Scriptures everywhere teach us that when 
the spirit leaves the body, if it has been redeemed 
by the blood of Christ, it passes into paradise, a 
state of joy ; and if it is unredeemed, it passes in- 
to a state of punishment, called torment or Tar- 
tarus, and between these two places there is an 
impassable gulf, over which no man can pass. 

At the death of Lazarus his spirit went into par- 



166 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

adise, and at the death of Dives his spirit went in- 
to torment ; and in these habitations the righteous 
and the unrighteous spirits remain until the judg- 
ment-day, when they will receive their final re- 
ward. This doctrine was taught by Christ and the 
apostles, and by the Christian authors and teachers 
of the first three hundred years of Christianity. 
This intermediate state is called in the Old Testa- 
ment "Sheol" and in the New Testament " Hades" 
— both words meaning the invisible state, or the 
unseen world, or the abode of spirits, and this is 
the scriptural truth that underlies the colossal lie 
of purgatory. 

The Doctrine of Purgatory Darkens the Death-bed of 
the Poor Romanist. — He trusts to the priest and clings 
to the holy candle, eats the little wafer, and faces 
the terrors of purgatory, where his sufferings will 
be as intense as the sufferings of the damned in 
hell. I have seen Roman Catholic death-beds, and 
I have yet to see a happy one. How can a soul de- 
part this life in joy when he feels that he is going 
from a bed of pain to a bed of torment, from a 
world of suffering to a world of purgatorial fire ? 

Oh, how much better it is to look to Jesus, to 
trust in Him, to commit all to Him who is able to 
guide us, even unto death, and keep us safe from 
the terrors of judgment and bear us to a paradise 
of joy where there shall be no more sorrow, nor 
crying, nor pain, nor separation, nor death. 

In closing, I would say to those who believe in 
these dreadful doctrines, of what avail are they ? 
Suppose you are penitent ; suppose you do confess 



Purgatory and Indulgences. 167 

your sins, receive absolution, perform innumerable 
satisfactions, and do all that you can do, according 
to the instructions of your priest. Well, soon the 
bravest and strongest of } r ou must die — and then 
where are you ? According- to your belief, pain, 
suffering-, wrath and woe are your portion. There 
is no peace and rest, till you pass throug-h purg-a- 
tory. Oh, nry friends, these doctrines you have 
not learned from God's Holy Word ; these doctrines 
are based upon the creeds and commandments of 
of men— men as sinful as yourselves. I beseech of 
you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, turn 
away from them; accept Christ as the living- head 
of the Church, as your personal Saviour ; accept 
the Scriptures as your one rule of faith and prac- 
tice ; live a devoted Christian life ; and when your 
summons comes you will not die in despair, but in 
hope ; you will not die trusting- your salvation in 
the hands of a priest, but trusting- in the merits of 
the Lamb of God ; you will not die substituting- 
the external for the internal ;. you will not die in 
fear of purg-atorial fires, but in hope of peace and 
joy at the rig-ht hand of God ; you will not die tor- 
mented by wafers, candles and beads, but you will 
pass away in peace to obtain the g-lorious victory, 
throug-h Him that conquered death and the grave, 
and opened the g-ates of heaven to all them that 
love His appearing*. 



RELICS, IMAGES, SAINTS. ANGELS, AND MARY. 



"Thou shalt not make unto thie any graven image."— Exod. xv. 4. 

" And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See 
thou do it not: lam thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have 
the testimony of Jesus: worship God." — Rev. xix. 10. 

In this discourse we shall consider some of the 
objects of veneration and worship in the Roman 
Catholic Church. Fearful have been the errors 
which we have considered, but those which are to 
be noticed as objects of worship are more so, be- 
cause they blaspheme God, and rob Him of the 
honor and worship which are due Him. The 
Scriptures teach us that God is the only object of 
worship, and that Christ is the only mediator be- 
tween God and man, and the only source from 
whence grace, streng-th, comfort and hope can come. 
But Rome has decreed that there are other objects 
of worship and veneration, viz., relics, images, 
saints, ang-els, and the Virgin Mary. 

The Scriptures teach us that there is only one 
kind of worship. But Rome has invented different 
degrees and orders of worship, viz.: There is one 
kind of worship due to relics and imag-es ; there is 
another kind due to saints and ang-els ; there is 
another kind due to the Virg-in Mary, and still 
another kind due to the Deity. For the lower 

(168) 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 161) 

objects of worship, Rome proposes a worship 
called "dulia"; for the Virgin Mary she proposes 
a worship called " hyperdulia ; " for the blessed 
Trinity she proposes a worship called "latria." As 
to the meaning of these words, there is little, if 
any, distinction. They are derived from a Greek 
word which means "to serve." They are applied 
to the service which we pay to God, to the service 
which heathens pay to their idols, and to the ser- 
vice which men pay to one another. In these 
senses the words are used indiscriminately, and in 
the Scriptures they signify the same thing. Rome 
has made an imaginary distinction to indicate the 
different degrees of veneration pi'id to different ob- 
jects of worship ; they have a relative or respective 
worship, a lower and a higher degree of worship. 
Their best authors are much confused in making 
these fine distinctions and subtle niceties ; some 
assert one thing, and some another. The endless 
confusion of their learned men upon the subject is 
sufficient to blind and mislead their ignorant fol- 
lowers. 

RELICS. 

We shall first consider some of their holy relics, 
and then pass on to images and the higher objects 
of worship. It is natural to value the possession 
of relics and remains of those with whom we 
have once associated and dearly loved, or of those 
who have been prominent in the world. Such ar- 
ticles are sometimes of great extrinsic value, and 
are sold at fabulous prices. This custom, innocent 



170 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

and praiseworthy in itself, has become a supersti- 
tion and doctrine in the Church of Rome. Let us 
examine the teaching-s of the Church upon this 
idolatrous veneration of relics : 

The Second Council of Nice, A. D. 787, decreed : 
"Whatever venerable churches have been con- 
secrated without holy relics of martyrs, shall 
have a deposit of relics made in them with the ac- 
customed prayer. And if after the present time 
any bishop shall be found consecrating- a church 
without holy relics, let him be deposed, as one 
that transgresseth ecclesiastical tradition." 

The Council of Trent broadly decreed the fol- 
lowing- : "That the holy bodies of the holy mar- 
tyrs and others living- with Christ, which were 
living- members of Christ and the temple of the 
Holy Ghost, and are by Him to be raised to eternal 
life and glorified, oug-ht to be venerated by the 
faithful ; by means of which the faithful receive 
many benefits. So that they who declare that ven- 
eration and honor are not due to the relics of the 
saints, or that the honor which the faithful pay to 
them and other sacred monuments is useless, are 
utterly to be condemned, as the Church already 
has condemned them, and does so at the present 
time." 

We copy from the creed of Pope Pius: "The 
saints reig-ning- tog-ether with Christ are to be hon- 
ored and invocated . . . and their relics are to 
be held in veneration." 

St. Thomas states : "A cross of any material 
oug-ht to be worshiped with latria, because not 
only the cross upon which Jesus Christ hung- is 
worthy of that worship because it touched Christ, 
but, also, inasmuch as it is a cross, i. e., a sig-n and 
imag-e of Christ hang-ing- on the cross." 

Cabrera says : "Those thing"s which b} r contact 



Eelics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 171 

with our Lord partook of His holiness, and remain 
dignified even in the estimation of the faithful, as 
the cross, nails, spear, thorns and so forth, are to 
be adored with latria." You will note that both of 
these authors assign the highest kind of worship 
to these relics. 

In Dens' Theology the question is asked : "With 
what worship are relics honored? A. In a mode 
and with a worship like that which the images of 
Christ and the saints are worshiped . . . With 
the same worship with which the person whose 
relics they are— a relative or respective worship." 

In a little book written for Protestants called 
" Catholic Belief," by Rev, Bruno, we are told that 
we should give to relics, crucifixes and holy pic- 
tures an inferior and relative honor as they relate 
to Christ and His saints. He then refers us to the 
handkerchiefs and aprons that touched the body of 
St. Paul, and closes the chapter by stating : " The 
many celebrated miracles wrought at the tombs of 
the martyrs prove that the honor we pay to them is 
agreeable to God." 

In Deharbe's Large Catechism, on page 55, the 
question is asked : "Why do we honor the relics 
of the saints ? 1. Because the bodies of the saints 
were the temples of the Holy Ghost, and will one 
day rise again from the dead to eternal glory ; 
2. Because God has often wrought great miracles 
through their means." The chapter then closes 
by stating: "The practice of honoring images 
and relics existed in the Church even in the times 
of the earliest martyrs." 

Gretser names a number*of these holy relics, and 
tells us where they are found. "The title of the 



172 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

cross, at Rome; the reed and the sponge, at St. 
John Lateran ; the spear, at Paris," etc. Among 
Rome's holy relics are : " The comb of the cock 
that crowed upon Peter's denial of the Lord ; a 
wing- of the archangel Gabriel ; the tail of Balaam's 
ass ; the heads, handkerchiefs and bones of early 
worthies," etc. 

Holy relics have been sought with great dexter- 
ity. The demand has been prodigious and univer- 
sal. The bodies of saints have been sought by 
fasting" and prayer. Great discoveries have been 
attended by great demonstration. Many have 
traveled through Palestine in search of the bones 
and sacred remains of the first heralds of the 
gospel, nor did these pious travelers return home 
empty ; the craft and knavery of the natives im- 
posed upon the credulous relic-hunters, legs, arms, 
skulls, jaw-bones, handkerchiefs, and other objects 
that were supposed to belong to the primitive 
worthies. And thus Rome is in possession of many 
celebrated relics, a catalogue of which would make 
a large volume ; the majority of them are base 
impositions. The honor and veneration which she 
gives to these holy relics borders on, and at places, 
partakes of worship. The distinction made in the 
honor and veneration given to them and the higher 
objects of worship must confuse the poor, deluded, 
and uneducated Romanist. Some of their authors, 
as I have already quoted, ascribe k 'latria," or the 
highest worship, to some of these relics. 

In our country we do not hear so much about 
these relics, but in Italy, Spain and other Romish 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 173 

countries the unwary are allured to a great adora- 
tion of relics. It is the general system that we 
discuss, and not the individual appearance which 
Rome may assume where she is watched and 
guarded. Do we want our land desecrated with 
these holy relics and worn-out superstitions ? Is 
it right for Rome to impose upon her members this 
pious imposition ? to bleed them from birth to 
death, and then, after death, swindle the friends 
of the deceased for funds to pay for the repose and 
release of their souls from an imaginary purga- 
tory ? 

IMAGES. 

The worship of images is similar to that of relics. 
If anything, it is of a more carnal character. An 
image is an artificial representation of some person 
or thing used as an object of adoration. It is plain 
from the practices of the primitive Church, as re- 
corded by the early fathers, that Christians during 
the first three centuries used in their worship nei- 
ther statues, images nor pictures. This practice 
was of slow growth. Paintings and statues were 
used, at first, as methods of instruction. There 
were many Christian converts from amongst the 
heathens ; these had been accustomed to looking* 
upon the statues of Jupiter and Mercury, and 
on embracing the Christian religion they would 
likely look with little repugnance upon the statues 
of Paul, or Peter, or Christ ; it would have been in 
accordance with their habits, and would have given 
but little shock to their feelings. 



174 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

In the year 305, the Council of Eliberis decreed : 
<l It is our pleasure that there be no pictures in 
churches. " About the year 370, Epiphanius states : 
" I saw, contrary to the Scriptures, the image of a 
man suspended in the Church of Christ, and I cut 
it down." But while the admission of pictures 
and images in the churches was rare in the end of 
the fourth century, it became common in the fifth ; 
they were, however, still considered as ornaments, 
and, even with this in view, met with considerable 
opposition. About the year 601, Gregory the 
Great condemned the use of images in the strong- 
est terms. He highly commended the Bishop of 
Marseilles for breaking the images to pieces. In 
the seventh century I find no instance of any wor- 
ship given, or allowed to be given, to images by any 
Council or assembly of Bishops. 

The worship of them began again in the eighth 
century, and spread to such an extent that Emperor 
Leo published an edict to destroy and put them 
down, while Gregory the Second upheld them. A 
civil war ensued ; the Pope anathematized the Em- 
peror, and the Emperor demanded a General Coun- 
cil to settle the dispute. Eventually a General 
Council, held at Constantinople A. D. 754, attended 
by 388 Bishops, declared the veneration of images 
to be highly dangerous, and condemned their use 
in solemn and emphatic terms. 

The effect of this Council was not of long du- 
ration. Irene, the wife of Leo, poisoned her hus- 
band, and assumed the reins of the empire. In 
786, a Council was summoned at Nice, known as 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 175 

the Second Nicene Council. This Council re- 
versed the decision of the preceding- Council, 
and established the use of imag-es in the follow- 
ing- terms: "Moreover, we salute the imag-e of 
the honorable and life-giving cross, and the holy 
relics of the saints ; and we receive and salute and 
embrace the holy and venerable images, that is to 
say, the image of the humanity of our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, and of our Immaculate Lady and 
Holy Mother of God, and the forms of represen- 
tation of the holy and incorporeal ang-els . . . 
and of the inspired apostles, and of the victorious 
martyrs and of the holy men." 

The Church in the West took a different direc- 
tion, and three hundred bishops, in the year 794, 
who were assembled by Charlemag-ne at Frankfort- 
on-the-Main, pronounced decidedly ag-ainst imag-e- 
worship. And thus the controversy continued, the 
opinions of the Church changing- from one side to 
another, until at length the opposition declined, 
and the practice was maintained and authorized. 

Various Councils reinstated the decrees of the 
Second Nicene Council, and encouraged image- 
worship. In the sixteenth century we arrive at 
the Council of Trent, which pronounced the decree 
that remains to this day as the authoritative teach- 
ing of the Church : "Moreover the imag-es of Christ, 
of the Virgin Mother of Christ, and other saints, 
are to be especially had and retained in the 
churches, and due honor and veneration to be g-iven 
them. Not that it is believed that any divinity or 
power resides in them, . . . but the honor with 



176 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

which they are to be regarded is referred to those 
who are represented by them ; so that we adore 
Christ and venerate the saints, whose likenesses 
these images bear, when we kiss them and uncover 
our heads in their presence and prostrate ourselves. 
. Whosoever shall teach or think in oppo- 
sition to these decrees : let him be accursed." 

This, my friends, is a short account of the rise 
and progress of image-worship. For the first 
three centuries of Christianity it was unknown ; 
for the next three centuries it was resisted by papal 
authority ; for the next two centuries it remained 
a matter of controversy and dispute between the 
Councils. Now it stands as a doctrine of Rome. 

The Council of Trent decrees some sort of venera- 
tion or worship due to holy images, and it must be 
so, when it teaches men to "kiss the holy images, " 
"to uncover their heads before them,'' " to bow 
before them," "to venerate them." 

Bellarmine declares : " The images of Christ and 
the saints are to be venerated, not only by accident 
and improperly, but properly and by themselves ; 
so that they themselves are the end of the venera- 
tion." 

Thomas Aquinas says : " Reverence is shown to 
the image only so far as it is an image, and then 
it follows, that the same reverence is to be paid to 
the image of Christ, as to Christ himself. Since, 
therefore, Christ is to be adored with the worship 
of latria, the consequence is that his image is to be 
adored with the worship of latria." 

Azorius says : " It is the constant opinion of the 
divines that the image is to be adored with the 
same honor and worship as the original." 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 177 

Vasques says : " Both the protot} T pe and original 
are included under the same veneration." 

Dens says: "Images may be worshiped with 
the same worship with which their prototypes 
are worshiped, but only with a relative or respect- 
ive worship." 

In the Breviary for the 14th of September, you 
may find this prayer: "O cross, more splendid 
than the stars, illustrious throughout the world, 
much beloved by men, more holy than all things, 
who alone wast worthy to bear the treasure of the 
world, bearing sweet wood, sweet nails, a sweet 
burden, save this present multitude assembled this 
day in thy praise." This prayer, you notice, is ad- 
dressed to the cross as if it was a living thing. 

Cardinal Gibbons, in the " Faith of our Fathers,'' 
states: "The veneration of the images of Christ 
and His saints is a cherished devotion of the Catholic 
Church." He then devotes an entire chapter in a 
laborious effort to support this dogma of Rome. 
He, as well as other Romish writers, offers various 
exercises, makes many palliations and futile at- 
tempts to explain away the actual worship of the 
images. He states they are placed before them as a 
catechism for the ignorant, to elevate the thoughts, 
to inspire devotion, to embellish the house of God, 
etc., etc., etc. 

When they defend this dogma against the mis- 
siles of Protestantism they deny image-worship, 
but to their own people, and in their own countries, 
they furnish, without any ambiguity, a true picture 
of their doctrine. 

Those who are devoted to images may be repre- 
sented under three general classes : 
12 



178 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

1. Those who honor the image for the sake of 
what it represents. 

2. Those who honor it with an inferior or im- 
perfect worship. 

3. Those who adore it with the same adoration 
that is given to the original. 

Those who write upon this subject for Protes- 
tants confine their opinions and statements to the 
first two classes. But I have shown that some of 
her acknowledged theologians ascribe the highest 
worship to some images, particularly the cross. 
Those who have traveled in foreign Catholic 
countries, and have made a study of this subject, 
can testify to the truthfulness of what I have said. 
They can tell you of the bowing down before 
images, of the kissing of them, of the great devo- 
tion to the image of the Virgin that is set on high, 
and of the votaries to the cross and the many other 
images which abound in Romish countries. 

I have seen in St. Joseph, the oldest Catholic 
Church in the State of Ohio, on Good Friday, as 
many as a thousand Roman Catholics with uncov- 
ered heads, with shoes off their feet, crawl on hands 
and knees up the central aisle, to kiss the toe or foot 
of a little image ; this ceremony was considered 
very sacred, and it is one that I have witnessed at 
least a dozen times. I have never witnessed a wor- 
ship or devotion that appeared so solemn and at 
the same time so absolutely ridiculous and blas- 
phemous. 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 179 

Image- Worship is Sinful in the Sight of God. 

There is no sin spoken of in God's Word as being 
so abominable in His sight, so hateful to His 
nature, and against which so many terrible judg- 
ments have been executed. 

The Old Testament is Against Image-Worship. 

The Jews excluded all penciled engravings and 
sculptured representations. Moses warned Israel 
ag-ainst any graven or stony effig-y ; he warned 
them against shaping* the likeness of any fowl, 
beast or reptile. He denounced and forbade the 
worship of the sun, moon, or stars of heaven. Note 
this commandment: " Thou shalt not make unto 
thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing 
that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth 
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth : 
thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve 
them." 

Romish writers and Councils have pretended to 
find support for this dogma in the cherubim and 
brazen serpent. But these are most unfortunate 
references for Rome. The people never beheld the 
cherubim, which were in the inner court of the 
temple, and therefore could never have worshiped 
them ; and furthermore, no evidence of their wor- 
ship was attempted. As for the brazen serpent, it 
was to be looked upon by the children of Israel in 
express obedience to God, that they mig-ht, by 
faith, receive a cure. They neither prayed to it, 
nor adored it, nor fell down before it. The Bible 



180 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

says, "Whosoever beheld it" — not "whosoever 
worshiped it." It was, however, treasured as a 
relic, and finally some of them burned incense to it. 
But when Hezekiah became king, he determined to 
purge the Jewish congregation of her idolatry, 
and we are told : " He removed the high places, 
and brake the images, and cut down the groves, 
and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses 
had made : for unto those days the children of 
Israel did burn incense to it : and he called it a 
piece of brass." 

When the children of Israel set up the golden 
calf, God's wrath was kindled against them, and 
He said to Moses: "Thy people, which thou 
broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have cor- 
rupted themselves. . . . They have made them 
a molten calf, and have worshiped it." 

The Romanists claim that as God is represented 
as standing, sitting or walking, " Why, therefore, 
cannot that be exhibited in a picture ?" But the 
Scriptures contain a good reply to this argument 
in the words of Moses : " Ye came near and stood 
under the mountain ; and the mountain burned 
with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, 
clouds, and thick darkness. And the Lord spake 
unto you out of the midst of the fire : ye heard the 
voice of the words, but saw no similitude. . . . 
Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves ; for 
ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the 
Lord spake unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of 
the fire : lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 181 

a graven image, or the similitude of any figure, 
the likeness of male or female." 

Prophet after prophet denounced this species of 
idolatry amongst the Israelites, and spoke of their 
miseries, woes, and subjugation because of it. 
However, Rome cares but little for the teaching of 
God's Word. 

The New Testament Against Image- Worship. 

Image-worship is at variance with the teachings 
of Christ and the apostles. Paul speaks of those 
who changed the glory of the incorruptible God 
into an image made like unto corruptible man, 
44 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and 
worshiped and served the creature more than the 
Creator." To the Corinthians he said: "And 
what agreement hath the temple of God with 
idols?" To the Athenians he declared: "We 
ougfht not to think that the Godhead is like unto 
gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's 
device." 

The Early Fathers copied the example of the 
apostles, and did not permit image-making or wor- 
ship ; they disclaimed the worship of images as 
the invention of Satan, and as injurious to devo- 
tion. For three centuries they had respect to the 
authority of heaven, and refrained from this idola- 
try ; they neither made images, nor wished for 
them. Origen (A. D. 230) says : "The Christians 
do not make or use images in religion ; they are 
by God forbidden to do so." Lactantius (A. D. 300) 
declares: "It is not doubted but that wherever 



182 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

there is an image, there is no religion." Ambrose 
(A. D. 380) says : " The church does not know any- 
thing" of empty forms, and vain figures of images." 
These, and many other Christian writers of the 
first four centuries, bear witness to the truth, that 
in the purer ages of Christianity image-worship 
was unknown, and was considered as heathenish 
and blasphemous. 

SAINTS AND ANGELS. 

From images and relics we pass on to the adora- 
tion of saints and angels. I find in the study of 
this subject four stages or degrees of this adoration 
and worship : 

1. The lowest degree is that in which God is 
asked to hear the prayers of His saints that are of- 
fered on our behalf. In the Breviary for the 20th 
of July we read the following : " We beseech thee, 
O Lord, suffer the blessed Margaret, virgin and 
martyr, to ask forgiveness for us." I would say in 
reply to this : How do we know that the saints 
pray for us ? And what is the use of asking God 
to hear their prayers when we have the assurance 
that He will hear our own? He bids us "come 
boldly to a throne of grace" ; then why go in this 
circuitous manner ? 

2. The next degree is that wherein the petition- 
er asks God to hear the prayers of the saints be- 
cause of their merits. For example (I copy from 
the Breviary): " O God, who didst adorn the blessed 
Pope Nicholas with many miracles, grant, we be- 
seech thee, that by his merits we may be set free 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 183 

from the fires of hell." But is this not a contra- 
diction of the great central truth of our religion, 
which represents Jesus Christ as the only person 
in whose merits we have any confidence and hope 
in trusting ? In both these instances the prayer is 
directed to God, and is not idolatr} 7 ; but in the 
next two degrees of worship there is an advance 
made into positive idolatry. 

3. In this degree the name of the saint or angel 
is invoked, and asked to help the petitioners. 
They trust in the supposed intercession that the 
saint or angel has a right to make with God. 

In one of their Mission Books, which is widely 
used (on page 238), in the Litany of the Saints, 
we read : "St. Michael, pray for us; St. Joseph, 
pray for us ; St. Gregory, pray for us ; St. Dominic, 
pray for us ; St. Agnes, pray for us ; all ye men and 
women, saints of God, pray for us." This litany 
covers three pages, and each time direct appeal is 
made to anindividual or collection of individuals. 

The Council of Trent teaches k ' that the saints 
reigning together with Christ offer to God their 
prayers for men, . . . that it is good and useful 
to invoke them with supplication, . . . to have 
recourse to their prayers, aid and assistance." 

Pope Pius IV. decreed : "I constantly hold that 
the saints reigning together with Christ are to 
be honored and invocated, and that they offer 
prayers to God for us." All of this is abundant- 
l} 7 confirmed by many of their private writers. 

In Deharbe's Large Catechism, on pages 54 and 
55, we are told : " The Catholic Church teaches that 



184 America or Kome: Christ or the Pope. 

it is right and good for the soul to honor the 
saints and pray to them." " We pray to them that 
by their intercession they may obtain for us favors 
from God." "We address ourselves to them be- 
cause Jesus Christ will hear their prayers more 
readily than ours." On page 136 of the same cate- 
chism, we have a prayer to a guardian angel or 
saint : "O blessed spirit, whom God in His mercy 
has appointed to watch over me, intercede for me 
this day, that I may not stray from the path of 
virtue. Thou also, O happy saint, whose name I 
bear, pray for me, that I may serve God faithfully 
in this life as thou hast done, and glorify Him 
eternally with thee in heaven." 

Among the angels, Michael and Gabriel come in 
for a large share of the invocations. Nuns and 
Sisters of Charity are invoked by the wholesale. 
For example, "Oh, ye 11,000 glorious maids, lilies 
of virginity, roses of martyrdom, defend me in 
life by affording me your assistance." 

4. The last stage of this worship is the climax 
of an idolatrous devotion. It sets up another object 
of prayer and devotion in the place of God. No 
longer is God asked to hear the intercession of saints, 
to regard their merits, etc., but the saints and 
angels are put in the place of God. 

Pope Pius VIII. decreed three hundred days in- 
dulgence to those who would use the following 
invocation : "Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, I offer to 
you my heart and soul ; Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, 
assist me in my last agony ; Jesus, Joseph, and 
Mary, may my soul expire in peace with you." 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 185 

Here you will observe that Joseph and Mary are 
placed on a parallel with Jesus. 

Cardinal Bonaventura directs the following : 
"Holy angels, seal of the Divine likeness, full of 
wisdom, perfect in beauty, be present with me to 
defend me from the assault of evil spirits, from the 
assaults, frauds and snares of the enemy." 

On the 14th of January the following- hymn is 
directed to be offered to St. Peter: "O Peter, 
blessed shepherd, of thy mercy receive our pra}^ers, 
and loose by thy word the chains of our sins." 

I have in my hand a little manual, called " Sodal- 
ity of the Holy Angels," which was given me by a 
recent convert from Rome who was once a member 
of this society. We are told on pages 5 and 6, 
" The object of this little sodality is to attract the 
young to the practice of piety by inspiring them 
with a simple loving devotion to the Holy Angels 
. and encourage them to invoke their aid and 
protection in all their necessities." On page 19, 
under the act of consecration, we read : " O blessed 
spirits, who continually behold the face of God, in 
the presence of the Immaculate Queen of Angels, I 
consecrate myself to your service. Receive me, O 
blessed spirits, among the number of your devoted 
clients." On pages 41 and 42 we have the Litany 
of the Holy Angels, in which a large number are 
invoked as individuals, as powers, as principalities, 
etc. On pages 44 and 45 there is a Litany of the 
Guardian Angel, and on page 51 there is a prayer 
to be said daily by each member of the society, 
which begins : " O angel of God, who art my 



186 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

guardian, and to whose holy care I am committed 
by the supreme clemency, enlighten, rule, guard 
and govern me this day and forever. Amen." This 
little manual has the approval of Archbishops 
Purcell, of Cincinnati, and Jacobus, of Baltimore, 
and is of high authority. 

These references are sufficient to demonstrate to 
you the various degrees of violation of God's Word 
in Rome. These dogmas are maintained and com- 
manded, argued and defended. They defend them 
on the ground of " mediators of intercession "; this 
plea might avail for the lower degrees of worship, 
but for the last degree, in which the saint or angel 
is invoked and made an object of worship, the 
argument is worth nothing, and is mere subter- 
fuge. The next defense is a reference to the angels 
that helped God's people on earth : Michael, the 
archangel, is described as helping Daniel ; Jacob 
wrestling with the angel, and Joshua and the 
angel, are cited. In the case of Joshua, the context 
proves that the angel was the Lord, and was 
worthy of worship. In the case of Daniel and 
Jacob, nothing is said about offering prayers to the 
angel. 

That saints and angels should not receive our 
worship is evident from the twenty-second chapter 
of Revelation, where we are told that John fell 
down to worship at the feet of the angel, and the 
angel said unto him : "See thou do it not : for I 
am thy fellow-servant, and of th} r brethren the 
prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of 
this book : worship God." 



IIelics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 18? 

To support this dog-ma, Rome is compelled to 
rely upon her chicanery and the igmorance of her 
people. If her people would only search God's 
Word, they would soon discover how the Holy 
Mother Church misquotes and mutilates the Scrip- 
tures, which are alone sufficient to make us wise 
unto salvation. 

WORSHIP OF MARY, THE MOTHER OF 

JESUS. 

They ascribe to Mary a worship peculiar to 
herself, a worship above that of saints and ang-els. 
This they call " hyperdulia." 

Before entering* into the discussion of the wor- 
ship ascribed to her I wish to state that we should 
look upon Mary as represented in the Scriptures. 
Let us examine those passages in which special 
reference is made to her : " Blessed art thou among 
women"; "Hail, thou that art highly favored, the 
Lord is with thee." She is styled "Mary, the 
mother of Jesus." Elizabeth called her the "Mother 
of our Lord." The angel, in speaking- to Joseph, 
said: "Mary thy wife," "the } 7 oung child's 
mother." On none of these occasions is she ad- 
dressed as an object of worship. 

In the treatment she received by the wise men, 
the angels, and Joseph, there is nothing- from 
which we might infer that she was to be worshiped. 
At Cana of Galilee, when she spoke to Jesus about 
the wine, He replied : "Woman, what have I to 
do with thee ? mine hour is not yet come " — im- 



188 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

plying that in earthly thing's they had a relation- 
ship, but none in heavenly things. 

On one occasion, some one said to Jesus : "Behold, 
thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desir- 
ing to speak with thee." To which he replied : 
"My mother and my brethren are these which 
hear the word of God, and do it." In this case he 
ascribes to her no superior position, but considered 
her as he does all who obey his will. 

On another occasion, some one said : " Blessed is 
the womb that bare thee." He turned away from 
earthly relationship, and said: "Yea rather, 
blessed are they that hear the word of God and 
keep it." 

In all these scenes Jesus as good as forbids any 
superstitious reverence which any might presume 
to give to Mary. Contrary to all this, Rome wor- 
ships and ascribes salvation and divine attributes 
to her, as we shall presently see. 

Rome has invented three festivals in honor of 
her, of which no mention is made in God's Word : 
First, the Immaculate Conception ; second, the 
Nativity ; third, the Assumption. 

The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception 

Is one of the biggest frauds that was ever perpe- 
trated on an ignorant people. It represents the 
very limit of folly and nonsense. It is claimed 
that when the Pope was in exile he had a dream 
which he took for a vision on the subject. He saw 
the Virgin, who informed him that he should return 
to Rome, obtain an eternal peace with the Church 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 189 

and declare the Immaculate Conception, which 
every one had to believe to be saved. On the 8th of 
December, 1854, he was sitting- on his throne, with 
a triple crown of gold and diamonds on his head, 
arrayed in silk and damask, with red and white vest- 
ments on his shoulders. He was surrounded with 
five hundred mitered prelates, and more than fifty" 
thousand people were at his feet in the magnificent 
cathedral, St. Peter's of Rome. It was then and 
there, speaking* ex cathedra, he promulgated the 
blasphemous doctrine : 

" By authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the 
blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own 
authority, we declare, pronounce and define that 
the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Vir- 
gin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, 
by a special grace and privilege of the Almighty 
God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the 
Saviour of mankind, was preserved free from the 
stain of all original sin, has been revealed by God, 
and therefore is to be firmly and steadfastly be- 
lieved by all the faithful. Wherefore should any 
presume, which God avert, to think in their heart 
otherwise than has been defined by us, let them 
know and moreover understand, that they are con- 
demned by their own judgment, that they have 
made shipwreck as regards the faith, and have 
fallen away from the unity of the Church." 

As soon as this was pronounced the Pope intoned 
the Te Deum, the bells of three hundred churches 
rang out, the canons of the citadel were fired, the 
doors of heaven were shut against those who re- 
fused to believe it; and the sacrilegious comedy 
was over. The doctrine was fiercely discussed by 



190 America or Rome: 1 Christ or the Pope. 

bishops, priests, nuns and laity. But it was useless 
to deny it, for the Pope was infallible, and it had 
to be swallowed, though it was a most ridiculous 
dogma and altogether antiscriptural. Since that 
day, the catechisms teach, "The Blessed Virgin 
Mary, by a special privilege, was preserved from 
all stain and sin," etc. 

The Festival of the Assumption 

Is celebrated on the 15th of August. In the Brevi- 
ary, we are told, " Mary the Virgin is taken up " ; 
"the Holy Mother of God is taken up above the 
choirs of angels to the heavenly kingdoms." In 
the Sixth Lection we read : "How could the lower 
regions receive her ? how could corruption attack 
that body in which life was received ? A straight, 
a level, and an easy path was prepared for her to 
heaven." We are told in the Mission Book, 
"Twelve } ;r ears after the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ, Mary departed this life and was carried up 
by angels to heaven." This same book tells us, on 
page 228, that Mary was crowned in heaven by the 
hand of God and appointed to be our advocate. 

All this is said on the authority of man and not 
of God. The Scriptures say nothing about her 
death and not a single reference to her Assumption; 
if she ascended to heaven it is strange that the 
Scriptures do not mention it, and strange that 
nothing was heard of it for four centuries after she 
lived. This doctrine should be cast aside as a 
popish legend and silly fable, unworthy the belief 
of every sane man. 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 191 

Mary is Rome's most Conspicuous Object of 

Worship. 

The worship of the Deity is secondary and subor- 
dinate to hers. Two hundred millions of Romanists 
worship her as the " Queen of Heaven," and as- 
- cribe to her divine honors, titles and attributes. It 
is useless for the Church to attempt to deny this 
charge. Her holy (?) Fathers may state to Prot- 
estants that they only honor her ; but let all such 
Protestants know that the truth is suppressed, 
and that Rome is to-day publishing- and teaching 
and practicing- and glorying- in the worship of Mary. 

In the Mission Book, which is approved by her 
bishops, there is an article on " Visits to the Blessed 
Virg-in," from which we copy the following- : 

Page 209 : "O, sweetest, most compassionate 
and most amiable sovereig-n . . . thou dost 
not examine the merits of each one that has re- 
course to thy goodness, but thou dost promise 
help to all who will pray to thee. Thou wilt hear 
me willing-ly. ... I consecrate myself to thy 
service. I g"ive myself to thee. O, then, save now 
a penitent who is thine and no more his own." 
Pag-e 212 : "Ah, Mary, my refug-e, my strength, 
and my hope, never permit that I should lose the 
grace of God, for I am resolved in all my tempta- 
tions to have immediate recourse to thee." 

From. Deharbe's Large Catechism (page 132) we 
copy the following prayer : 

"Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our Life, 
our Sweetness and our Hope ; to thee do we cry, 
poor banished sons of Eve ; to thee do we send up 
our sighs, mourning, and weeping in this valley of 



192 America or Home: Christ or the Pope. 

tears. Turn, then, most gracious Advocate, thine 
eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, 
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, 
O clement, O loving - , O sweet Virgin Mary." Page 
135 : "O Mary, my Queen and my Mother, I offer 
myself entirely to thee, and in order to prove myself 
devoted to thee I consecrate to thee this day my 
sight, my hearing - , my speech, my heart, my whole 
being - . Since therefore I am thine, O g-ood Mother, 
preserve and defend me as thy property and posses- 
sion." 

Bonaventura, a canonized saint of Rome, has 
taken the Psalms of David and made a new version 
of them, with some most remarkable interpolations. 
Wherever he found the name of " God," or " Lord," 
he chang-ed it to "Lady," and called his book the 
"Psalter of the Blessed Virgin." In the 9th 
Psalm we read, " I will confess to thee, O Lady, 
with my whole heart, and I will declare among - the 
people thy praise and thy glory." In the 10th 
Psalm we read, " I trust in the Lady, because of the 
sweetness of the mercy of her name." In the 23d 
Psalm we read : " Thou, Most Holy Mother, reign- 
eth with Him forever." In the 29th Psalm we 
read, "I will exalt thee, O Lady, since thou hast 
received me." In the 67th Psalm, "Let Mary arise, 
and let her enemies be scattered." In the 130th 
Psalm, " O Lady, hear my voice." In the 140th 
Psalm, ''Praise our Lady in Heaven ; glorify her 
in the highest ; praise her, all ye men and cattle, 
ye birds of heaven and fishes of the sea ; praise 
her, all ye legions of angels ; praise her, all ye 
spirits above." 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 193 

Antonius, Archbishop of Florence, commenting 
upon the words of Paul, says: " 'Come boldly to 
the throne of grace.' Mary is the throne of grace; 
to her let us therefore come with boldness, that 
we may obtain mercy and grace in the time of 
need." Biel, commenting" on the canon of the 
mass, declares: ''The name of Mary, to us, affords 
a sweeter taste than that of her Son." Pope 
Gregory, A. D. 1832, stated in his encyclical let- 
ter: "Let us raise our eyes to the Most Blessed 
Virgin Mary, who alone destroys heresies, who is our 
greatest hope, yea, the entire ground of our hope." 

Mary in the Eucharist. 

Dr. Oswald, a German Catholic theologian, 
states : "We maintain the co-presence of Mary in 
the Eucharist. This co-presence is a consequence 
of our Marian theory, and we must not shrink 
from any consequence. We believe that in the ele- 
ments of the Eucharist the presence of Mary is 
complete ; that she exists there entirely, body and 
soul. . . . We must familiarize ourselves with 
the idea of a mutual and permanent inter-penetra- 
tion of the body of Christ with the body of the 
Virgin, and at the same place, that is, to say, in 
the holy elements." 

Archbishop Gibbons, in the "Faith of Our 
Fathers," on page 221, says: " I find Jesus and 
Mary together at the manger, together in Egypt, 
together in Nazareth, together in the Temple, 
together at the Cross. I find their names side by 
side in the Apostles' and the Nicene Creed. It is 
fitting that they should both find a place in my 
heart, and that both names should flow successively 
from my lips. Inseparable in life and in death, 
they should not be divorced in prayer. ' What 

13 



194 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

God hath joined together let no man put asun- 
der.'" 

I find Judas and Jesus together when he called 
the twelve, together in the mountain, together at 
the sea, together on the plain, together in Jerusa- 
lem, together at the Supper, together in Gethsem- 
ane. It is fitting, therefore, that they should 
both find a place in my heart, and that both names 
should flow successively from my lips, etc., tk What 
God hath joined together let no man put asunder." 
What logic ! What an influence ! Gibbons may do 
to write for people in Mexico, but not in the United 
States, where they are taught to think. 

The Children of Mary. 

This is a society, the special object of which is 
to teach to the young " devotion to Mary." The 
girls who are members of this society are practi- 
cally taught to worship Mary as the one great 
means of salvation. 

Book of the Scapular. 

This is a book written to explain the " Devotion 
of the Scapular." Thousands of good Catholics 
have it, and read it, and practice what it teaches. 
I have before me the scapular of the Virgin Mary. 
It is two pieces of brown cloth, with a strip of 
white muslin sewed on each of them ; on one piece 
of the white muslin is printed a picture of the 
Virgin Mary and her infant Son ; on the other, a 
picture of four angels bowing in devotion to the 
" Sacred Heart." The two pieces of cloth and 
muslin have strings attached to them to enable the 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 195 

wearer to keep them between his shoulders. The 
wearing" of this scapular was revealed to one of 
their Holy Saints by the Virgin Mary, who g-ave 
him a scapular, and told him that whoever would 
die wearing- this g-arment would not suffer in the 
flames of hell. 

Pope John had a similar vision. The Virgin in- 
formed him that she would descend to purg-atory 
on each Saturday and take with her into heaven 
those who wore the scapular while on earth. Pope 
John published a bull telling* of this vision and 
making" it a matter of faith. 

Alexander V., Clement VII., Pius V. and Greg-- 
ory XIII. officially declared their faith in this doc- 
trine. Words could not be plainer. Mary will 
save those who wear the scapular. Many g-ood 
Catholics wear it, and expect Mary to save them 
from the flames of purg-atory.* 

Miss Cusack says : " When the unhappy Dr. 
Cronin was murdered in Chicag-o, the men who did 
the foul deed stripped him naked, but they did not 
dare to touch the scapular which remained around 
his neck, an evidence of his faith in Mary, and 
their superstitious fear of offending- her. Powerful 
indeed must have been this feeling- for Mary, which 
controlled those who did not hesitate to offend God 
by committing- murder. ,, 

Litany of the Blessed Virgin. 

Behold the extravag-ant expressions of praise 
and worship which they give to Mary in the litany 
which is here given: 

*See Appendix 7. 



196 America or Rome: Christ or thb JPopfi;. 

Holy Mary, Vessel of honor, 

Holy Mother of God, Vessel of singular devo- 
Holy Virgin of Virgins, tion, 

Mother of Christ, Mystical rose, 

Mother of Divine Grace, Tower of David, 

Mother most pure, Tower of ivory, 

Mother most chaste, House of gold, 

Mother undefiled, Ark of the covenant, 

Mother unviolated, Gate of Heaven, 

Mother most amiable, Morning Star, 

Mother most admirable, Health of the weak, 

Mother of our Creator, Refuge of sinners, 
Mother of our Redeemer, Comfortress of the af- 
Virgin most prudent, flicted, 

Virgin most venerable, Help of the Christians, 

Virgin most renowned, Queen of the angels, 

Virgin most powerful, Queen of Patriarchs, 

Virgin most merciful, Queen of Apostles, 

Virgin most faithful, Queen of Martyrs, 

Mirror of justice, Queen of Confessors, 

Seat of wisdom, Queen of Virgins, 

Cause of our joy, Queen of Saints, 
Spiritual vessel, 

Pray for us. 

What can be the meaning of such expressions as 
4 Morning Star," 44 Refuge of sinners," 44 Seat of 
wisdom," 44 Gate of Heaven," etc.? Is not this lan- 
guage that should be applied to Christ only ? Is 
not this rather fulsome flattery lavished upon 
Mary? 

Pictures, Images, and Miracles of Mary. 

Rome glorifies the Blessed Virgin in art. AH 

the fervor of devotion, wealth of genius and riches 

of art have been lavished upon her. Millions of 

images, paintings and statues set forth her queenly 




Image Worship. 



198 America or IIome: Christ or the Pope. 

beauty and glorious majesty. "The Egyptian 
image or Isis standing on the crescent moon, with 
the infant God Honorus in her arms, as worshiped 
by the Egyptians, has been boldly transferred to 
the worship of the Madonna and Child. The pic- 
ture is the same— the worship is similar." 

Numerous miracles have been attributed to Mar} 7 . 
Amongst them I append a list : " Dead raised, 19 
blind made to see, 187 ; deaf and dumb relieved, 125 
lame restored, 136 : paralytics revitalized, 153 
fevers cured, 135 ; strains healed, 187 ; miscella- 
neous miracles, 210. Total, 1152."* 

The Blessed Virgin the Patroness of the 
United States. 

St. George is the patron saint of England ; St. An- 
drew, of Scotland ; St. Patrick, of Ireland ; St. Denis, 
of France ; St. James, of Spain ; St. Nicholas, of 
Holland. 

In Sadlier's History of the United States, page 
391, we are told: "In 1846 the Sixth Council of 
Baltimore assembled. Twenty-three bishops took 
part in its deliberations, and their first act was to 
solemnly choose the Blessed Virgin Mar} T , conceived 
without sin, as the patroness of the United States. 
This was eight years before the definition of the 
Dogma of Immaculate Conception." 

" Geories of Mary." 

This is a book approved by John, Archbishop of 
New York, published by the Excelsior Publishing 

*See Appendix No. 8. 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 199 

House, New York, 1891 It has been duly exam- 
ined and approved. Its doctrines no Catholic dares 
to speak. In this book, Rome teaches that salva- 
tion in the hands of Mary is a certainty. I will 
copy a few, of hundreds of similar statements, that 
ascribe salvation and divine attributes to Mary. 

In the preface, page 13, we read : " God has or- 
dained that all graces should come to us through 
the hands of Mar}'." 

In the introduction, page 15 : "In every danger 
we may obtain salvation through the glorious Vir- 
gin." 

Page 18 : " To honor the Queen of Angels [Mary] 
is to acquire life everlasting." 

Page 19 : " All graces are dispensed by the hand 
of Mary alone." 

Page 26 : " All angels and men, all things that 
are in Heaven, and on the Earth .... are 
also subject to the Dominion of the glorious Vir- 
gin." 

Page 26: "Dispose according to thy will, of 
everything belonging to thy son, for . . . the 
kingdom and power over all creatures is due to 
thee as Queen." 

Page 33: "Have pity on us, then, O Queen of 
Mercy, and give heed to our salvation." 

Page 35 : " Let us always have recourse to this 
most sweet Queen, if we will be sure of our salva- 
tion." 

Page 80 : " Mary is our life, because she obtains 
for us the pardon of our sins." 

Page 81: "Honor the Virgin Mary, and we 
shall have life and eternal salvation." 

Page 82 : " Let sinners who have lost grace, flee 
to Mary ; with her they will certainly find it. 
Therefore, she is ordained to be the mediatrix of 
peace, between the sinner and God." 



200 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Page 83 : " By her means alone, we hope for the 
remission of all our sins." 

Page 84 : " Sinners receive pardon only through 
the intercession of Mary." 

Page 93 : "The soul cannot live without having 
recourse and commending itself to Mary, through 
whose means the life of Divine grace is obtained 
for us, and preserved in us." 

Page 95 : "He falls and is lost who does not flee 
to Mary." 

Page 115: "Mary is the hope of all." 

Page 117: "Hail, hope of the Soul ! Hail, secure 
salvation of Christians ! Hail, helper of sin- 
ners ! Hail, defense of the faithful, and salvation 
of the world " 

Page 201 : "The Virgin has all power in heaven 
as on earth." 

Page 202 : "Omnipotent to save sinners." 

Page 216 : "The peculiar refuge of the lost, the 
hope of the wretched, and the advocate of all sin- 
ners." 

Page 228; "A tower of refuge." 

Page 230 : "Mary is always before the Divine 
Tribunal to mitigate the sentence and punishment 
due to the sinner." 

Now, my friends, this is Rome's doctrine of sal- 
vation through Mary. Salvation through Mary is 
approved by Popes and archbishops. And Protest- 
ants by their money and influence support institu- 
tions where this alleged infallible doctrine is 
taught. In the rosary, which is frequently said by 
the Catholics of this city and the Catholics of the 
world, they call on our Father fourteen times and 
upon Mary fifty-three times. In their books of 
devotion, page after page is filled with stories, all 
of which has the same moral, "If you want to be 




Image of Madonna and Child. 



202 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

saved hereafter call on the blessed Mary." All of 
which is 

Against the Scriptures. 

From the first to the last page of the Scriptures, 
from Genesis to Revelation, we are taught that 
God is the only object of worship and that Jesus is 
the only mediator. It is written: "Thou shalt 
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt 
thou serve." "I am the Lord, and there is none 
else: there is no God beside me." "Let no man 
beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility 
and worshiping of angels, intruding into those 
things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by 
his fleshly mind." 

Let us Examine the Intercessions in the 

Scriptures. 

Abraham interceded for Sodom, Isaac for Jacob, 
Jacob for Ephraim. Examine the prayers of Sam- 
uel, Elijah, Daniel, David, and all the prophets, 
and in not one intercession do you find any being 
addressed save God. God is always the .object of 
worship. If the Lord had intended that the wor- 
ship of Mary should be an article of faith, He 
would certainly have revealed it in the Scriptures. 
But the evangelists and the apostles are abso- 
lutely silent on this question. 

The Teaching of Christ. 

Angels ministered unto Jesus, but on no occasion 
did he request their help. His prayer was ad- 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 203 

dressed to God. He has taught us to say, "My 
Father," "Our Father," "When thou prayest, pray 
to thy Father which is in secret." When Stephen 
prayed he did not call upon Michael, or Mary, but 
said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." When Cor- 
nelius fell at Peter's feet to worship him, Peter 
took him up and said, "Stand up, I nryself am also 
a man." When the heathens were about to wor- 
ship Paul and Barnabas, Paul rebuked them and 
said, ' ' We also are men with like passions with you. " 

It is Blasphemy to God. 

This sentimeutal worship of Mary is a most 
dangerous doctrine, because it appeals to the best 
feelings of humanity and because it appears harm- 
less to those who know no better. But is it not 
the basest blasphemy ? The Scriptures teach us 
that our God is our Creator, Preserver and Benefac- 
tor ; that honor and glory belong to Him, that we 
are dependent upon Him for all we have ; that- we 
live and move and have our being in Him; that 
praise and worship is due Him. Now for us to 
transfer our worship to one of His creatures, is to 
rob Him of His glory and of His great attributes 
— omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence. It 
attributes to the creature infinite knowledge ; for 
if Christians in all parts of the earth offer their 
prayers to finite beings in a distant part of the 
universe, then it supposes that these beings know 
the wants, accidents and frailties of the petitioners. 
It attributes the power of ubiquity to the creature, 



204 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

i. e. , he must be everywhere, so as to be able to 
answer the prayer of the petitioners. It attributes 
to him omnipotence, i. e., the power to bestow that 
which is requested by the petitioners. The Scrip- 
tures teach us that these attributes belong" exclu- 
sively to the Godhead, but if the creature possesses 
them, where is the difference between the creature 
and the Creator ? Verily, Rome would rob God of 
these great attributes, and transfer the worship due 
Him to saints, angels and Mary. This is glaring 
impiety and base blasphemy. 

Creature- Worship is Blasphemy to Christ. 

"Neither is there salvation in any other name 
under heaven." " I am the way, the truth, and the 
life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." 
" In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and 
knowledge." " He is able to save unto the utter- 
most all that come unto God by him." " In him is 
life, and the life is the light of men." " He is the 
Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the 
world." " If we ask anything" according" to his 
will, he heareth us." "Ask that ye may receive." 
"There is one God, and one Mediator between God 
and man, the man Christ Jesus." There are not 
two mediators between God and man. Jesus is our 
High Priest, touched by the feelings of our infirm- 
ities ; therefore come boldly unto the throne of 
grace. Nowhere are we taught to g"o to another, 
or to g"o in a circuitous or distrustful route. Jesus 
is the door into the sheepfold ; he that climbeth up 
some other way is a thief and robber, 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 205 

Creature- Worship is Against Antiquity. 

For more than three hundred years after Christ 
there is nothing- mentioned of any worship of saints, 
angels, or of the Virgin Mary. During- this 
period, when the gospel was preached to so many 
nations, there were writers of every kind— his- 
torians, commentators, ministers and apologists, 
and yet we do not find a single author teaching - or 
alluding- to the worship of saints, ang-els, or the 
Virgin Mary. Their writing's cover the ordi- 
nances, doctrines, faith and practices of the early 
churches, and in no instance do they allude to the 
invoking* the aid of saints and angels as a com- 
ponent part of their worship ; they never refer to 
the Virgin Mary as the ''Queen of Angels," who 
has " our salvation in her hands." But all of them 
speak of God as the object of our devotion. 

CONCLUSION. 

A Word to Catholics. 

If you will study God's Word, you will soon be 
convinced of the truthfulness of what I have said. 
You will find the devotion to relics and imasres, 
and the worship of saints, angels and the Virgin 
Mary are positively antiscriptural. 

We have proven to you that neither Christ, nor 
the apostles, nor the early disciples of the Lord 
taught, or practiced, or countenanced such wor- 
ship. These are doctrines which have been pro- 
mulgated by sinful man. These are dogmas forged 



206 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

as articles of faith which ought to convince you of 
the fallibility of your Church, the changeableness 
of your creed, and the shameful lies your priests 
are required to impose upon you. Why not turn 
from this blind path to the good old paths ? Why 
not turn from the worship of the Virgin Mary to 
the worship of God ? Why not cast aside all these 
degrees of worship and come to God through 
Christ, who is able to save to the uttermost ? 

O, let me impress upon you that Jesus loves you; 
that He is the only one who shed His blood for 
you that you might have remission of sins ; and 
that through Him, and Him only, can you be saved. 
Be not deceived ; God is not mocked. Let not the 
inventions of superstitious and cunning men be- 
beguile you of your forgiveness and reward which 
is in Christ Jesus. 

A Word to Protestants. 

It seems as if the Almighty had suffered men, in 
the hardness of their hearts, to forsake Him and 
stray into wickedness. The Romanists have for- 
saken the living God, and set up holy relics and 
sacred images, holy saints and innumerable angels; 
they have wandered from the mediation of Christ 
and substituted that of Mary. They have bestowed 
the honor due to the Creator upon the creature. I 
have given to you a very small portion of the evi- 
dence which might be adduced upon these subjects. 
Much more and much worse remains. The adora- 
tion and worship of relics, images, saints, angels, 
and the Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church 



Relics, Saints, Angels, and Mary. 207 

is a gross perversion, masked idolatry, and a base 
imposition. 

What shall be done ? Let us strive to educate 
the Romanist. Let us teach him a better way of 
the Lord. Let us have recourse to prayer. Let us 
pray for the lig-ht to shine upon Rome's dark ways. 
Let us pray that her people may have a freer 
insight into God's Word. Let us pray to God to 
hasten the day when His people will come out of 
Babylon into the king-dom of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
out of error into truth, and out of darkness into 
light. 



AND THE BIBLE. 



" In vain do they worship me, teaching- for doctrines the command- 
ments of men. . . . Fall well ye reject the commandment of God, 
that ye may keep your own tradition." — Mark vii. 1-9. 

" For I testify unto every man that heareth th.3 words of the prophecy 
of this book, If any man shall add unto the e things, God shall add unto 
him the plagues that are written in this book : And if any man shall 
take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take 
away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from 
the thing's which are written in this book." — Rev. xxii. 18-19. 

The Protestant Rule of Faith. 

The Bible is our rule of faith and practice. It 
contains all thing's necessar} 7 to salvation ; it is the 
supreme standard by which all faith, conduct and 
creeds should be tried. Rome should hear what 
the Lord hath spoken upon this subject : " To the 
law and to the testimony : if they speak not accord- 
ing- to this word, it is because there is no lig-ht in 
them." "He established a testimony in Jacob, and 
appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded 
our fathers, that they should make known to their 
children : That the g-eneration to come might know 
them, . . . that they mig-ht set their hope in 
God, and not forg-et the works of God, but keep his 
commandments." "The law of the Lord is perfect, 
converting- the soul : the testimony of the Lord is 
sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the 

(208) 



Romanism and the Bible. 209 

Lord are right, rejoicing - the heart : the command- 
ment of the Lord is pure, enlightening- the eyes, 
. . . the judgments of the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether." Jesus said, "Search the 
scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal 
life : and they are they which testify of me." Paul 
said: "All scripture is given by inspiration of 
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
correction, for instruction in righteousness. That 
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
nished unto all good works." The same apostle 
wrote to the Galatians, " Though we, or an angel 
from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you 
than that which we have preached unto you, let 
him be accursed." 

The early Christian writers received the Scrip- 
tures as their rule of faith and practice, and as 
sufficient to make them wise unto salvation. Euse- 
bius declared at the General Council of Nice, A. D. 
325, that we should "believe the things that are 
written ; the things that are not written, neither 
think upon nor inquire into." Cyril, Bishop of 
Jerusalem, said (A. D. 356) : " Do not simply give 
faith to me while I am speaking these words to 
you ; have the proofs of what I say from the holy 
Word ; for the security and preservation of our 
faith are not supported by ingenuity of speech, but 
by the sacred Scriptures." During the primeval 
purity of Christianity, appeal was constantly made 
to the Bible in all matters of doctrine. It was 
paramount to all things. It was the beginning 
and ending of all pastoral instructions. All doc- 

14 



210 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

trines and oral teaching's were regulated by it. It 
stood above the fluctuating" opinions of men as 
authentic and divine. It received no secondary 
and subordinate place to the dog-mas of the Church, 
the leg-ends of monks, or the traditions of men. 

The Jewish religion could not have existed had 
not God revealed himself to Abraham and Moses. 
Had not God revealed the doctrines of Christianity 
unto us, we would not be in possession of it, for no 
earthly being- could have invented it. Now this 
religion, with all its announcements, blessings, 
privileges, rewards and punishments we rind fully 
revealed in God's Word ; therefore, whatever is to 
be believed or done, and whatever is enjoined as 
doctrine or duty, must have its grounds as coming 
from God. We must then look to God's Word, and 
not to men's aguments and creeds, for our author- 
ity. On this ground we stand. On this founda- 
tion we are safe. It is the foundation of the apos- 
tles, the prophets, and Church of God ; it is an in- 
fallible foundation. The opinions of men and the 
dogmas of tradition may change and err, but the 
doctrines revealed in God's Word will always be 
the same. We are not born of corruptible, but in- 
corruptible seed, by the Word of God, which liveth 
and abideth forever. 

The Catholic Rule of Faith. 

The Roman Catholics receive both the Bible and 
tradition for their rule of faith. We read in the 
creed of Pope Pius IV.: " I most steadfastly admit 
and embrace apostolic and ecclesiastical traditions, 



Romanism and the Bible. 211 

and all other observances and constitutions of the 
same Church." k 'I do also admit the Holy Scrip- 
tures according- to that sense which our Holy 
Mother, the Church, has held and does hold, to 
which it belong-s to judge of the true sense and in- 
terpretation of the Scriptures ; neither will lever 
take and interpret them otherwise than according' 
to the. unanimous consent of the Fathers." 

The Council of Trent, which met in the sixteenth 
century, and which is regarded by Romanists as 
infallible, issued several decrees on this subject, 
which are in substance as follows : " The unwritten 
traditions which we receive from the mouth of 
Christ himself by the apostles, or from the apostles 
themselves, have come down to us as if delivered 
from hand to hand," on an equality with the books 
of the Old and New Testament. Then a list of 
the canonical books, including* the Apocrypha, is 
g-iven. The Council then anathematizes all who 
do not receive and believe this decree. It likewise 
forbids any interpretation of the Scriptures "con- 
trary to that sense which the Holy Mother Church 
has held, or holds, or contrary to the unanimous 
consent of the Fathers." 

The Second Plenary Council of Baltimore adds 
another decree, in which we find the following- 
statement : "We vehemently urg-e all pastors of 
souls in this reg-ion to keep continually before 
their eyes all those thing-s which have been decreed 
in the matter of so great moment by the Council of 
Trent, commended by the Supreme Pontiffs." 

" Catholic Belief," written by Rev. Bruno, and 



212 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

translated by Rev. Lambert, and approved by sev- 
eral archbishops of this country, speaking" (page 
45) in reference to the Bible and tradition, says : 

"Of the two, Tradition is more clear and safe. 
Because Tradition can testify in its own behalf, 
through the many authorized witnesses who carry 
this Tradition in themselves, while Holy Scrip- 
ture can not make g-ood its authority without refer- 
ring to Tradition to testify to its inspiration 
and preservation." On page 40, he states: "The 
Holy Scriptures, when separated from Tradition, 
which is its support and lawful expounder, and 
thrown into the hands of unauthorized interpreters, 
instead of being a source of blessing* becomes a 
cause of endless contention and division, an occa- 
sion of doubt, fanaticism, and ceaseless wrangling, 
as sad experience proves. Tradition without Holy 
Scripture, Old or New, sufficed for many years, and 
could still suffice. But Holy Scripture has never 
sufficed by itself; it always stood in need of Divine 
Tradition ; for it is only by this Divine Tradition 
that we learn that the Holy Scripture is an inspired 
book. It is only Tradition that can give, with 
authority and certainty, the right intepretation 
and meaning of the Scriptures. Without Tradi- 
tion the Holy Scriptures may be made to speak in 
many discordant ways, thus destroying their au- 
thority altogether. " 

Cardinal Gibbons, in the "Faith of our Fathers," 
devotes an entire chapter to prove that God never 
intended the Bible to be our rule of faith and prac- 
tice. Some quotations from this chapter will make 
known the opinions of this high dignitary. Page 
115 : "A Pope's letter is the most weighty author- 
ity in the Church." Page 96 : "God never intend- 
ed the Bible to be the Christian's rule of faith, in- 



Romanism and the Bible. 213 

dependently of the rule of the Church." To prove 
this assertion he gives the following - reason (page 
111): "The Scriptures alone cannot be a sufficient 
guide and rule of faith, because they cannot at any 
time be within the reach of every inquirer ; because 
they are not of themselves clear and intelligible, 
even in matters of the highest importance, and be- 
cause they do not contain all the truths necessary 
for our salvation." Another reason given is this : 
" Jesus himself never wrote a line of Scripture. 
He never once commanded His apostles to write a 
word, or even to circulate the Scriptures already 
existing"." 

How puerile are these arguments in the light of 
the following Scriptures: "Search the Scriptures; 
for they are they which testify of me." The Scrip- 
tures "are able to make thee wise unto salvation." 
The Lord knew that His words would be written, 
and called the apostles for that purpose. What is 
the difference between the spoken and written word? 
John states in closing- his Gospel, these things "are 
written that ye might believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye 
might have life through: his name." Such is the 
record and statement of the inspired apostle. 

On page 102, the Archbishop would have his 
readers infer that the Scriptures are a "dead let- 
ter," and that we cannot be governed by dead let- 
ters. The Bible a "dead letter!" This is blas- 
phemy ! God's words are not dead sounds. Christ 
says they are spirit and they are life ; that man 
must live by them ; that when they enter the soul 



214 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope 

they carry light ; that we are born by them, saved 
by them, converted by them, purified by them, 
made free by them, judged by them. It was this 
alleged "dead letter" that stirred Europe from cen- 
ter to circumference, and led millions to throw off 
the yoke of Rome. On page 116, the Archbishop 
would have his readers believe that man) 7 Bibles 
are on sale in Catholic book-stores. I cannot 
allow this to pass without stating that in Novem- 
ber, 1894, I sent messengers to two Catholic book- 
stores in Dayton, to two in Cincinnati, and to two 
in Toledo, to purchase a cheap edition of the Cath- 
olic Bible ; and to my disappointment the messen- 
gers returned stating that they were told that they 
had no cheap Bibles on sale; one store reported no 
Bibles on sale, and the others had only costly vol- 
umes. I will leave the reader to make his own 
inference. 

Several years after the Cardinal wrote the chap- 
ter referred to, to show how useless a book the 
Bible is, he preached a sermon in which he praised 
the Bible. But Cardinal Gibbons is a Romanist, 
and a full-fledged Romanist will state one thing 
one day, and another thing another day. He 
changes his opinions and statements to suit the oc- 
casion. It would be an easy matter to show that 
the Cardinal has made many statements in direct* 
opposition to the infallible decrees of his own 
Church. But that Church permits the Cardinal to 
adapt and vary his statements to suit Protestant 
and Catholic ears, and to suit the occasion, be it a 
public or private one. 



Romanism and the Bible. 215 

In Deharbe's Catechism, on page 10, we are told: 
11 Catholic Tradition and Holy Scripture were alike 
revealed by God. ... A Christian must believe 
all that God has revealed and the Catholic Church 
teaches, whether contained in the Holy Scriptures 
or not." 

We have quoted from her Councils, bishops, 
Popes and catechism to prove that the Romanist 
receives as his rule of faith and practice both the 
Scriptures and tradition, and that he places tradi- 
tion before the Bible in his epitome of faith. We 
have reached the bottom of his faith ; and so far 
as tradition is concerned, it is a sand}- bottom. 
Even' student of history knows that many of these 
popish legends, decrees of Councils, and supposed 
traditions are a mass of lies, full of contradictions 
and gross absurdities, which are wholly without 
apostolic authority. 

Tradition Contrasted with Scripture. 

Tradition contains many things that are valu- 
able, but they were not imposed upon us by our 
Lord and Master as authority in the Church. The 
Scriptures are always the same. In them we read 
the same words that the first Christians read, but 
as for the traditions of Rome, they change like the 
chameleon ; that which was believed yesterday is 
not believed to-day, and that which is believed to- 
day will not be believed to-morrow. That which was 
believed in the seventh century, was condemned in 
the eighth century. Much that was practiced in 
the sixteenth century is not practiced to-day. The 



216 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary was 
made a matter of belief in the year 1854. The 
Assumption of the Virgin was unheard of beyond 
the fourth century. Tradition is hollow ; it is 
full of dead doctrines ; it is subject to numberless 
changes. The man that believes it, and strives to 
practice its teachings will find himself in conflict, 
and upon a troubled sea. He will find it teaching 
him thousands of things not found in God's Word. 
Tradition may contain many things found in the 
Scriptures ; these should be believed, not because 
of tradition, but because of revelation. The Bible 
is, and should be, every Christian's court of appeal; 
it should be the judge to decide all controversy. If 
we go outside of it for arbiters, we may find our- 
selves in the realm of paganism, heathenism and 
darkness. It is useless to seek man's authority 
when we have recourse to God's. It is useless to 
appeal to tradition, when we carry the New Testa- 
ment in our pockets. The New Testament is God's 
last will. It reveals the only plan of salvation 
whereby man can be saved, and therefore we should 
look to it and abide by it. 

Rome is Opposed to Our Bible and Our Bible 

Societies. 

In 1816, Pope Pius VII. spoke of the circulation 
of the Scriptures amongst the Poles, by the Metho- 
dists, as "undermining the foundations of religion, 
as a crafty device, a pestilence which must be abol- 
ished, a faith eminently dangerous to souls." This 
same Pope exhorted the Irish Bishops "to work 



Romanism and the Bible. 217 

with unbounded zeal to prevent the wheat from 
being" choked by the tares." He said this in com- 
plaint of the circulation of the Scriptures among- 
the Irish by the Protestants. 

The encyclical letter of Greg-ory XVI. written 
May 25th, 1844, is of special interest to Americans. 
A part of it is here g-iven : 

" Among-st the principal machinations by which 
in this our ag-e, the non-Catholics of various names 
endeavor to ensnare the adherents of Catholic 
truth, and to turn away their minds from the holi- 
ness of the Faith, a prominent position is held by the 
Bible Societies. These Societies, first instituted in 
England, and since extended far and wide, we now 
behold in one united phalanx, conspiring- for this 
object, to translate the books of the Divine Scrip- 
tures into all the vulgar tong-ues, to issue immense 
numbers of copies, to disseminate them indiscrimi- 
nately among* Christians and Infidels, and to entice 
every individual to peruse them without any g-uide. 
Nothing- is more likely to happen, than that in ver- 
sions of them multiplied by the Bible Societies, the 
most grievous errors may be introduced, by the 
ignorance or fraud of so many interpreters. . 
To these Societies, however, it matters little, or 
nothing-, into what errors the persons who read the 
Bible translated into the vulg-ar tong-ues may fall, 
provided they be gradually accustomed to claim 
for themselves a free judg-ment of the sense of the 
Scriptures, to contemn the Divine Traditions as 
taug-ht by the Fathers and preserved in the Catholic 
Church, and even to repudiate the Church's direc- 
tions. To this end these members of Bible Socie- 
ties cease not to calumniate the Church and this 
Holy See of Peter. . . . We have, however, 
great cause to congratulate you, Venerable Breth- 
ren, that, at the impulse of your own piety and 



218 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

wisdom, you have never neglected, when necessary, 
to admonish the Catholic flock to beware of the 
snares laid for them by the Bible Societies. 
From intelligence and documents lately received, 
we have ascertained that several persons of differ- 
ent sects met last year at New York, and formed a 
new society entitled 'The Christian Alliance,' to 
be increased by new members from every nation, 
or by auxiliary societies, whose common design 
shall be to introduce religious liberty, etc. . . . 
Having therefore taken into our counsel several 
Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and having 
gravely and maturely weighed the whole matter, 
with their concurrence we have decided to issue 
this epistle to you, Venerable Brethren, in which, 
as respects all the aforesaid Bible Societies already 
reprobated by our predecessors, we again with 
apostolical authority condemn them ; and by the 
same authority of our Supreme Apostolate, we 
reprobate by name and condemn the aforesaid new 
Society of the ' Christian Alliance,' constituted last 
year in New York, and other associations of the 
same sort, if any have joined it, or shall hereafter 
join it. Hence be it known, that all such persons 
will be guilty of a grave crime before God and the 
Church, who shall presume to give their name, or 
lend their help, or in any way to favor any of the 
said societies. 

"Called as you are, Venerable Brethren, to par- 
ticipate in our solicitude, we urgently bid you in 
the Lord to announce and explain, as place and 
time permit, to the people entrusted to your pasto- 
ral care, this our apostolic judgment and com- 
mands ; and to endeavor to turn away the faithful 
sheep from the above society of the 'Christian Alli- 
ance ' and its auxiliaries, as also from all other 
Bible Societies, and from all communications with 
them. At the same time it will also be your duty to 




The Proscribed Books. 



220 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

seize out of the hands of the faithful, not only Bibles 
translated into the vulgar tongue, published con- 
trary to the above directions of the Roman Pon- 
tiffs, but also proscribed or injurious books of every 
sort, and thus to provide that the faithful may be 
taught by your monitions and authority, what sort 
of pasture they should consider salutary to them, 
and what noxious and deadly. Moreover, Vener- 
able Brethren, against the plots and designs of the 
members of the 'Christian Alliance' we require a 
peculiar and most lively vigilance from those of 
your order who govern churches situated in Italy, 
or in other places where Italians frequently resort ; 
but especially on the confines of Italy, or wherever 
emporiums or ports exist from whence there is fre- 
quent communication with Italy. For as the sec- 
taries themselves propose to carry their plans into 
effect in those places, those bishops are especially 
bound to cooperate with us, so as by active and 
constant exertions, with the Divine help, to defeat 
their machinations." 

In a letter written by Pope Leo XIII., addressed 
to his Vicar General in Rome, dated June 26, 1878, 
we read : 

" Here temples of Protestants, which have arisen 
with the money of Bible Societies, likewise in the 
most populous streets, as if by way of insult ; here 
schools, asylums, and hospices, open to incautious 
youth with the apparent philanthropic intention of 
assisting them in the culture of the mind and in 
their material wants, but with the true aim of 
forming of them a generation inimical to the reli- 
gion and to the Church of Christ. . . . These 
heretical sects, which are now welcomed with such 
honors, are endeavoring with the assistance of 
these godless societies, to shake that rock against 



Romanism and the Bible. 221 

which Holy Scripture declares the gates of hell 
shall not prevail." 

It is evident from these letters that the Popes 
and their followers have been greatly disturbed in 
view of the possibility of the Italians reading the 
Bible and having religious freedom. The Popes 
condemn all Bible Societies, and especially those 
whose sole objects are to encourage a wider circu- 
lation of the Holy Scriptures without note or com- 
ment. 

The Second Plenary Council, held in Baltimore 
in 1866, urged the clergy to "keep away from their 
own flocks the Bibles corrupted by non-Catholics, 
and permit them to pick out the uncorrupted food 
of the Word of God only from approved versions 
and editions." This Council also determined to 
retain and use the Douay version. 

John Wyckliffe, who was one of the earliest 
translators of the Bible into English, was anathe- 
matized thirty years after his death as a notorious 
and scandalous heretic. Tindal, another English 
reformer, and translator of the Bible, was, after 
being imprisoned over a year and a half in a stone 
castle, condemned as a heretic, strangled, and 
burned at the stake, October 6th, 1656. 

On the 12th of October, 1869, Pope Pius IX. is- 
sued the following bull of excommunication : 

"We excommunicate and anathematize, in the 
name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and by 
the authority of the blessed apostles Peter and 
Paul, and by our own, all Wyckliffites, Hussites, 
Lutherans, Calvinists, Huguenots, Anabaptists, 
and all other heretics, by whatsoever name they 



222 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

are called, and whatsoever sect they be; and also, all 
schismatics, and those who withdraw themselves, or 
recede obstinately from the obedience of the Bishop 
of Rome ; also their adherents, receivers, favorers, 
and generally any defenders of them ; together 
with all who, without the authority of the Apos- 
tolic See, shall knowingly read, keep, or print, 
an} 7 of their books which treat on religion, or by 
or for any cause whatever, publicly, or privately, 
on any pretense or color defend them" 

In this bull, the Pope excommunicates all here- 
tics and those who possess or read any books that 
are not approved by his Royal Highness. It ap- 
pears that the Popes are fearful of every agency 
that has for its object the circulation of God's 
Word. They seem to forget that it is only through 
this book that men are made wise unto salvation 
and furnished for every good work. 

After reading these various decrees and denun- 
ciations we may expect to find some severe treat- 
ment given to our Bible, Yes, they have hated our 
Bible to such an extent that they have gone far- 
ther than mere condemnation. They have 

Burned our Bibles. 

In November, 1842, several Jesuit missionaries 
held a protracted meeting in the town of Cham- 
plain, New York. A large number of Catholics 
from the adjoining towns and county attended the 
meeting. After the meetings were in progress for 
several days, an order was issued, requiring all who 
had Bibles to bring them to the priest ; and on the 
27th of October, a large number of Bibles, more 
than one hundred, were brought out from the 



224 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

priest's home, and placed in a pile in the open 
yard, and fire was set to them, and they were 
burned to ashes. This was done in open day in 
the State of New York, and in the presence of 
many spectators. These Bibles were given to the 
Catholics by the agent of a Bible Society. Imme- 
diately meetings of the Protestants were held 
throughout the county, and resolutions were passed 
expressing strong indignation at the insult offered 
to God and His Book in our country. I have in my 
possession a copy of the affidavit of four prominent 
citizens of Champlain, New York, in which they 
testify to the truth of this account of Bible- 
burning. Of course, the priest in charge denied 
it, and added in his denial : "It would be better to 
burn such translation of the Bible than to give it 
to grocers and dealers to wrap their wares in." 

In the year 1854, the Catholics also burned Bibles 
in York, Pennsylvania. The priest returned a 
Bible to the agent of the Society, with a note, 
which closed with the following statement: "If I 
find more such Bibles, I will not send them back, 
but I will burn them, for they are worthy of it." 

The agent for the American Bible Society in 
Chili, in the year 1835, saw New Testaments, with- 
out notes, publicly and ceremoniously burned by 
priests in the public square of one of the cities. 
Rev. J. C. Brigham, writing from Chili, states that 
he saw a large number of copies of the New Tes- 
tament, that had been issued by the American Bible 
Society, burned with great pomp and ceremony ; 
and adds that the outrage was public, and instead 



Romanism and the Bible. 225 

of being" disowned was openly defended, and done 
in compliance with the decree of an infallible Coun- 
cil. As late as 1867, Bibles were burned in Brazil 
by priests who found them in the homes of their 
parishioners, where agents for foreign Bible So- 
cieties had left them. 

Mr. Charles Chiniquy, who is now residing- in 
Montreal, states when he was a child that the 
priest came to his father's home and demanded the 
Bible which Mr. Chiniquy and his child had been 
reading. The priest said: "You know it is 
my painful duty to come here and get the Bible 
from you and burn it." His visit resulted in arous- 
ing* the ire of Mr. Chiniquy, who ordered him to 
leave the house. 

I have confined my remarks on the subject of 
"Bible-Burning - " to events that occurred in this 
century, and, sir, I need not go out of the State of 
Ohio to find a man who will testify that a Protes- 
tant Bible was taken out of his hands by a bigoted 
Romanist and thrown into the fire. If Protestants 
would burn the Bibles that bear the approval of 
the Pope, and do it publicly, and in a land where 
Catholics are numerous, it is highly probable that 
blood would be shed. I must confess, that I am 
afraid of every influence that is afraid of the Bible. 
Every influence that shuts out this great light is a 
dangerous influence. 

Some years ago, the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation succeeded in placing Bibles in nearly all 
the American railway-carriages. Father Grogan, 

the parish priest in Bridgets, was on his way to 
is 



226 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Chicago in an Illinois Central Railroad car ; he 
saw a Bible in the case, for passengers to read. 
He seized the book, examined it hastily, and threw 
it out of the window. The passengers offered to 
assist the conductor in putting off the priest, but 
the priest apologized, and said the book was full of 
obscene pictures. A search was made for the book, 
and no pictures whatever were found in it; the 
priest was therefore guilty of lying, as well as a 
hatred for the Bible. This occurred in 1877. 

Rome not only hates, condemns and burns our 
Bible, but she 

Proscribes and Restricts the Reading of 
Her Own Bible. 

The Romanist in controversy with a Protestant 
will declare the Church does not forbid the unre- 
strained reading of the Bible, and the Protestant will 
not suspect the Romanist is ignorant of the teach- 
ings of the Church. Let us examine the teaching 
of the Holy Mother Church upon this question. 
The Council of Tolosa, 1229, wages war against 
the Bible. This sacred Council forbade the laity 
to possess the Old and New Testament Scriptures 
in the vernacular idiom. The laity might possess 
the psalm-book, or "Hours of Mary," but no Bible. 
Twelve centuries had rolled away from the time of 
Christ and no assembly had dared to interdict the 
book of God, but this Council, boasting of its infal- 
libility, repealed the laws of heaven that had been 
in practice for twelve hundred years. 

The Council of Trent decreed : " Inasmuch as it 



tlOMANISM AND THE BlBLE. 22? 

is manifest from experience, that if the Holy Bible, 
translated into the vulgar tongue, be indiscrimi- 
nately allowed to everyone, the temerity of men 
will cause more evil than good to arise from it, it 
is on this point referred to the judgment of the 
bishops or inquisitors, who may by the advice of 
the priest or confessor permit the reading of the 
Bible, translated into the vulgar tongue, by Catho- 
lic authors, to those persons whose faith and piety 
they apprehend will be augmented and not injured 
by it ; and this permission they must have in writ- 
ing. But if anyone shall have the presumption to 
read or possess it without such written permission, 
he shall not receive absolution until he have first 
delivered up such Bible to the ordinary." 

Bishop Milner, a prominent Catholic author, in 
" End of Controversy," speaking of the reading of 
the Scriptures, says: "No such obligation is gen- 
erally incumbent on the flock, that is, on the laity. 
It is sufficient for them to hear the Word of God 
from those whom God has appointed to announce 
and explain it to them, whether by sermons, or 
other good books, or the tribunal of penance." 

I copy the following from Peter Dens' Theology: 

"Is the reading of the Sacred Scripture neces- 
sary, or commanded to all ? 

"That it is not necessary or commanded to all, 
is plain from the practice and doctrine of the Uni- 
versal Church. 

" It is further proved, thus : it is the duty of 
some in the Church to teach ; it is the duty of 
others to seek knowledge of the law from the 
mouth of the priests ; the same as in civil affairs, 
it is not the duty of all to investigate the laws, 
adjudge controversies, etc. 

II Besides, the Sacred Scripture was not read in 
the Church, except in Latin, Hebrew, or Greek, 



228 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

until the fourth century, and in Spain, only in 
Latin, until the sixth century. 

"The Church does not forbid by any decree, the 
reading of the Sacred Scripture, even to the laity, 
in the Hebrew, Greek, or Latin language. 

"Of course, however, this must be abstained 
from, if this reading, through defect of capacity, 
or disposition of the mind, would be of bad tend- 
ency." 

When Pope Julius requested three Roman Cath- 
olic bishops to give advice as to the best manner 
of strengthening the Church of Rome, they replied: 

"Lastly, of all advice we can give your Beati- 
tude, we have reserved to the end the most impor- 
tant : Namely, that as little as possible of the gos- 
pel in the vulgar tongue be read in all countries 
subject to your jurisdiction. The little which is 
usually read at Mass is sufficient, and beyond that, 
no one whatever must be permitted to read it. . . 
To sum up all : That book is the one which, more 
than any other, has raised against us those whirl- 
winds and tempests whereby we are almost swept 
away ; if any one examine it diligently and then 
confronts therewith the practice of our Church, he 
will perceive the great discordance, and that our 
doctrine is utterly different from and often contrary 
to it." The original of this article is in the library 
of the British Museum. 

A Roman Catholic Missionary in India writes : 
"To show the Scriptures, without long prepara- 
tion, to a pagan, for the purpose of exciting him to 
inquiry, is an absurdity. I have under my care 
eight thousand native Christians, and I would be 
much troubled to find among them four persons to 
whom the simple text of the Bible could be of any 
use." 



Romanism and the Bible. 229 

Rome did not authorize a copy of the Bible in 
English until she was forced to do it, and now that 
it is done, she proscribes and restricts the use of it. 
For years those who read it, had to obtain permis- 
sion from the priest to do so. Now the Bible is in 
costly binding-, and carefully guarded and restricted 
in its circulation and use, and this, too, in some of 
her colleges. On page 85 of " Fifty Years in 
Rome," we read the following: "I must say, 
though with a sad heart, that moral and religious 
education in Roman Catholic colleges is worse than 
void, for from them has been excluded the only 
true standard of morals and religion, the Word of 
God." 

You will observe the Church, or the Pope and 
bishops, stand between the Bible and their people. 
The faithful Romanist is nol allowed to read the 
Bible and think for himseli, but must let the 
Church think and interpret for him ; he goes not 
to the law and testimony, but to the Church ; not 
to follow the Church would be a great sin. 

One word as to the Church granting permission 
to read the Bible : I know two Catholics, with 
whom I associated during all nry earty life, who 
had written permits from the parish priests to read 
the Bible ; they boasted of these permits, and they 
spoke disparagingly of others who did not possess 
this privilege. I am glad to know that this decree 
on permission is not in effect, and that her people 
have proven the fallibility of the Council. 

Every now and then, some priest or bishop 
boasts of Rome's great veneration for God's Word, 



230 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

and the desire the Church has to have the laity 
read authentic versions of it, and even the Pope 
issued an encyclical with this sham pretense ; but 
these bluffs pass in respectable silence, and Rome 
again settles down into her former condition. 

One of her priests wrote an article for the " Con- 
temporary Review" in April, 1894, in which he 
states, " When in search of light and guidance, as 
many of us are at present, it is not the Bible to 
which we have recourse, but directly to the Church 
or its Venerable Head." 

Henry Lasserre, of France, in his preface to his 
edition of the Bible, states: "The greater part of 
the children of the Church know the divine books 
only by the fragments contained in the prayer- 
book," and he adds : ''the Gospel, the most known 
book among- us, not three believers in each parish 
have studied it. The Bible is not always so neg- 
lected. . . . We must lead the faithful to the 
fountain of living water which flows from the in- 
spired book. We must make them hear, taste and 
relish the direct lessons of the Saviour's words. 
It is a notorious fact that the Gospels are 
hardly ever read by those who profess to be Cath- 
olics, and never by the multitude of the faithful." 
This was written in 1887, and this able Catholic 
author certainly had an accurate knowledge of the 
general condition of the laity and of the circula- 
tion of God's Word amongst them. Lasserre's 
Bible was approved by the Pope, and was having a 
large sale ; but soon the crash came, and the good 
work was stopped. The infallible authority re- 



Romanism and the Bible. 231 

versed his approval, and forbade its sale. All this 
occurred within the past ten years. 

Why do they Object to the Circulation of 

God's Word? 

, Can it be because the Bible gives a detailed ac- 
count of the great apostasy of the Church ? Can 
it be because it warns the people to turn away from 
seducing- spirits, false prophets, saintly impostors, 
those who utter lies in hypocrisy, and forbid to 
marry? Can it be that Rome objects to the Bible 
because so many of her rites, doctrines and sacra- 
ments are not found therein ? Can it be because 
purgatory, the confessional, the consecrated host, 
extreme unction, and many other abominations are 
not in the Bible ? Can it be because Romanism 
can not be reconciled to the Bible ? I fear these 
are the reasons why Rome looks upon the Bible as 
a ' k dead letter" and " dangerous book." 

Another question is opportune : Why does Rome 
require her people to read the Scriptures according 
to the interpretations of the Holy Mother Church, 
when this Church has never g-iven an infallible ex- 
planation of a single chapter of the Bible ? The 
Church would require the people to read the Bible 
according to her interpretation, and then she re- 
fuses to interpret. If the Scriptures are to be in- 
terpreted by the Church, or rather the Pope and 
bishops, then Jesus Christ must submit the mean- 
ing of His own words to men who are both sinful 
and violators of God's laws. If the people cannot 
interpret the Bible, and therefore ought not to 



232 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

read it, pray how are they to read and interpret the 
Constitution of the United States ? Then why per- 
mit them to study the natural sciences without 
having- Rome interpret for them ? If people can- 
not have a private understanding- of the Scriptures, 
then they may not be able to have a private un- 
derstanding- of g-eography, arithmetic, political 
economy. If the people are not able to read and 
understand the Bible, I cannot see how they are 
to read understanding-ly anything- else. Ah, the 
truth is, Rome is trying to hold in bondage her 
people. She fears the circulation of God's Book. 
She knows that where it is circulated, her power 
wanes. For these reasons she opposes and de- 
nounces and anathematizes our seventy-five Bible 
Societies, that are giving the Bible to the people 
in more than three hundred lang-uag-es and dialects, 
and are sowing this g-ood seed by the distribution 
of millions of copies annually. 

It would be interesting- to know how many Bibles 
the Roman Catholic presses have issued, and how 
much money they have expended on Bible Societies, 
in comparison with the work done by the Protest- 
ant Bible Societies. Of the Bibles given away it 
would be surprising to know how few the Catholics 
have g-iven and the tens of millions that have been 
given by Protestants. 

In Rom xn Catholic countries, Bibles in the lan- 
guage of the people are both rare and costly. Until 
recently, notwithstanding- the most rigid censorship 
over the press and the importation of books, not- 
withstanding- the almost unlimited authority in 



Romanism and the Bible. 233 

Church and state, and notwithstanding- the un- 
bounded wealth of Rome, the City of the Pope had 
not a single copy of the original Hebrew Old 
Testament and Greek New Testament printed 
within her limits. 

The art of printing- facilitates the diffusion of 
the Holy Scriptures, but the Holy Mother Church 
has not been eager to avail herself of the art. 
Anson G. Phelps, of New York City, offered to 
print a large edition, of any approved translation 
of the Holy Scriptures into the Latin language, 
and send it to Italy for gratuitous distribution ; but 
Archbishop Hughes, to whom the offer was made, 
never accepted it. This offer has been made 
repeatedly by Protestants, both in England and 
the United States, but the offer has always been 
rejected. 

Romanism places a ban upon the Bible, and then 
decrees "that works of antiquity, written by the 
heathens, are permitted to be read because of their 
elegance and the propriety of their language." 
Restrict the reading of the Bible, but let the laity 
read heathenish literature ; let them have the cate- 
chism ; let them read the book of the " Glories of 
Mary," and the "Faith of our Fathers," the decrees 
of Councils, and popish legends and nonsense. 

Before closing, I want to call your attention 
to the 

Douay Bible. 

Mr. C. H. Collette, a well-known author, ex- 
amined twenty-nine Roman Catholic catechisms, 
which are used in many countries, and found in 



234 America or Rome: Christ or the JtWe. 

twenty-seven, the second commandment was entire- 
ly omitted, and in the remaining' two it was muti- 
lated. They have endeavored to take away the 
second commandment, and divide the tenth into 
two, to make up the number ten. They have sub- 
tracted and added to God's Word. Why suppress 
and mutilate God's Word? It is done in order to 
support a system which is not founded on God's 
Word. I have in my possession three of their cate- 
chisms, and neither of them g-ive the ten command- 
ments as they are found in the decalog-ue. 

In the Douay Bible, Matthew iii. 2, we read: "Do 
penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand/' 
In the Bible used by Protestants, the translation 
reads: "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is 
at hand." The great Bible commentators of the 
world are opposed to the word " penance," and de- 
clare it to be an incorrect translation. 

In the Lord's Prayer, in the Douay Bible, we 
read : "Give us this day our supersubstantial 
bread," and the note at the bottom explains, "It 
is understood of the bread of life, which we re- 
ceive in the blessed sacrament." 

In the Douay we read (James v. 14) : "Is any 
sick among- you ? let him bring- in the priests of 
the church." In the King- James translation it 
reads: "Is any sick among- you ? let him call for 
the elders of the church." 

In the Douay (Acts xiv.) we read: "And when 
they had ordained for them priests in every church," 
etc., which in the King- James translation we read: 
"And when they had ordained them elders in every 



Romanism and the Bible. 235 

church," etc. The word " priest" is here inserted 
to help support the system of Babylon. The min- 
isters of Christ are called apostles, bishops, pres- 
byters, teachers, evangelists, and deacons, but in 
not one instance are they called "priests." 

In the Douay (James v. 16) we read: "Confess, 
therefore, your sins one to another," and the note 
explains, "that is, confess them to the priests of 
the Church." 

These are sufficient examples to show how the 
true text is perverted, and how the incorrect trans- 
lation is imposed upon the credulous people by 
misleading- foot-notes. 

We might also point to various instances in 
which the meaning of the text is conceived by giv- 
ing Greek words instead of the English ; for ex- 
ample, in Luke xxii.l, Douay reads : "And the fes- 
tival of the Az3 T mes approached, which is called 
Tasch." Our Bible reads : " Now the feast of un- 
leavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Pass- 
over." 

The translators of the Douay make a great ef- 
fort to sanction the worship of images and relics. 
Heb. xi. 21 : "By faith, Jacob dying", blessed every 
one of the sons of Joseph, and adored the top of 
his rod." Protestant: "By faith, Jacob, when he 
was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph : and 
worshiped, leaning* upon the top of his staff." 

I will add only one more, the intention of which 
is too evident to be mistaken. I. Cor. ix. 5 : "Have 
we not power to carry about a woman, a sister," 
etc, Protestant: "Have we not power to lead 



236 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

about a sister, a wife," etc. The Douay comment 
on this verse is puerile in the extreme. 

The eminent historian Fuller, speaking- of the 
Douay translation, said, "It is one that needs to 
be translated." He also stated that its editors 
labored to suppress the truth under one pretext 
and another. 

In this discourse we have proven : 

1. The Bible, and the Bible alone, is the Protes- 
tant's rule of faith and practice. 

2. That the Bible and tradition is the rule of 
faith for the Roman Catholic Church. 

3. That Rome considers tradition of more weight 
and authority than the Scriptures. 

4. That tradition is full of error and is con- 
stantly changing*. 

5. That Rome is the avowed enemy of our Bible 
and Bible Societies. 

6. That she proscribes and restricts the circu- 
lation of the Bible translated by her own schoolmen. 

7. That a number of the words in the Douay 
translation are incorrectly translated, and a num- 
ber are left untranslated, for the purpose of sup- 
pressing the truth, confusing the reader, and sup- 
porting Romish dogmas. 

And this, my friends, is the treatment the good 
old Book receives at the hands of the Romanist. 
Our Saviour taught us to search the Scriptures, 
but Rome forbids this, and teaches us to search the 
decrees of Councils and popish legends. Our 
Saviour said : "Ye have one that judges you, even 
the word that I have spoken unto you," but Rome 



Romanism and the Bible. 237 

teaches that we shall be judged by Popes, Councils, 
bishops and the Holy Mother Church. Jesus taught 
that we are cleansed by the words that He spoke 
unto us, but Rome teaches that the people are 
cleansed by traditions and the confessional. Paul 
taught that the Scriptures are able to make us 
wise unto salvation ; but Rome will not allow the 
free use of the Scriptures, lest her people should be- 
come wise unto salvation. Paul taug-ht : "Though 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gos- 
pel unto you than that we have preached unto you, 
let him be accursed." But Rome teaches and 
preaches the gospel of Councils, Popes, canons, etc. 
In our text we are forbidden to add to or to subtract 
from the words of the Bible, but Rome subverts 
the truth, and adds the traditions of men. Our 
Scriptures teach us that God alone forgiveth 
iniquity ; Rome teaches, in Deharbe's Catechism 
(page 89), "That the bishops and priests of the 
Catholic Church have power to forgive sins." 

Our Bible is the foundation of our greatness ; it 
is the rock of our liberties ; it is the anchor of our 
hopes ; it is the guide of our people. Wherever it 
has gone, it has carried showers of blessings. It 
has made the United States, England, Germany 
and France the first nations in civilization. It has 
regenerated the cannibal ; it has tamed the wild 
savage. It has made husbands and wives more 
loyal to each other. It has made children more 
obedient to parents, it has made citizens more pa- 
triotic — in short, this great light has transformed 



238 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

nations and blessed the world, commercially, so- 
cially, intellectually, and spiritually. 

On the other hand, Rome has made void the 
Word of God throug-h her traditions ; her priests 
received the gospel by the dispensation of ang-els, 
and have kept it not ; they have subverted the 
truth by the decrees of Councils ; they have, for a 
pretense, made long- prayers ; they have shut up the 
king-dom of heaven to themselves, and will not 
permit others to enter ; they have encompassed 
land and sea to make proselytes, and then have 
made them twofold more the children of apostasy 
than they were before ; they have paid tithes of 
anise and cummin, and have omitted the weig-htier 
matters of the law ; they have cleansed the outside 
of the cup and platter, while within there is extor- 
tion and excess ; they appear before Protestants as 
whited sepulchers, while within there is unclean- 
ness and dead men's bones ; their churches, cathe- 
drals, convents and monasteries are amongst the 
finest building-s of the world, but behold the mys- 
teries and iniquity within ! They have killed some 
of the noblest and best men that God has ever 
given to the world ; they have burned millions of 
innocent men, women, and children, because they 
would not subscribe to their traditions ; the}' have 
persecuted every prominent Protestant in our own 
country who has dared to expose their dog^mas and 
intrigues. By their iniquities, the} 7 have crucified 
afresh the Lord of Glory. 

I would say, in closing - , " Come out of her, my 
people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and 



Romanism and the Bible. 239 

that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins 
have reached unto heaven, and God hath remem- 
bered her iniquities." There are many honest 
Catholics whose eyes are being- opened unto the 
plag-ues and iniquities of Rome ; to them I would 
say, "Come out of tradition unto God's Word; 
come out from the worship of the Virgin Mary to 
the worship of the true and living- God ; come out 
from the bondag-e of the priesthood into the liberty 
of the Gospel ; come out from the regions of dark- 
ness into the lig-ht of life ; come out from the fear 
of purg-atory into the hope of everlasting- life ; 
come, and you will have peace, joy, pardon, inspi- 
ration, and hope." 



ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 

Does Rome Teach that All Protestants will 

be Damned ? 

In 1529 the advocates of the Reformation in Ger- 
many protested ag-ainst the unjust decision of the 
Diet of Spires, and in consequence they were called 
" Protestants" — a new appellation for an old insti- 
tution ; for Protestantism, in its application, beg-an 
to signify Christianity. The changing* the sig-n 
did not chang-e the signification. 

The Protestant faith is the faith of the Bible. It 
was, at first, the purpose of those who protested, to 
reform the Roman Catholic Church, to pluck the 
weeds out of the grain, and to restore to vigor- 
ous health the diseased and apostate Church. It 
was their purpose to supplant debility and decay 
by vig-or, bloom, and beauty. Romanism was a 
treacherous conspiracy ag-ainst the rig-hts of human- 
ity ; it was the enemy of the commercial, social, 
civil, and religious interests of mankind ; it was 
the perversion of the doctrines of the Bible ; it was 
a man-made institution ; it was g*uilty of torturing-, 
burning- and butchering- some of the best men and 
women on the earth ; its leaders were arrog-ant and 

(240) 



Romanism and Protestantism. 241 

corrupt. For these reasons Protestantism sprang" 
to light— reasons sufficient to justify the existence 
of Protestantism and to vindicate its g-odljke char- 
acter and divine origin. 

Protestantism is the name now given to the vari- 
ous denominations of Christians which have sprung- 
from the adoption of the principles of the Reforma- 
tion. It stands opposed to Romanism. Its adhe- 
rents number considerably over one hundred mil- 
lion. 

In the lig-ht of these facts, it is pertinent to ask 
what Rome teaches about Protestants. We must 
judg*e Rome by her authorized teaching's. We must 
not take the word of an individual on such a grave 
question. It appears at once, that if Rome is the 
only infallible Church, she is the only Church in 
which a man can be saved. 

In Stephen Keenan's Controversial Catechism, 
which is approved by one of Rome's greatest car- 
dinals, and which is extensively used both in pa- 
rochial schools and Roman Catholic churches, 
there is an article on "Reasons why no Salvation 
is Possible Outside of the Roman Catholic Church." 
We will give some of the questions and answers 
which are found in this Catechism on this subject: 

"Q. Must all who wish to be saved die united 
to the Catholic Church ? 

"A. All those who wish to be saved must die 
united to the Catholic Church, for out of her there 
is no salvation. 

"Q. Have Protestants any faith in Christ ? 

"A. They never had. 

"Q. Why not? 

16 



242 America or Home: Christ or the Pope. 

"A. Because there never lived such a Christ as 
they imagine and believe in. 

"Q. In what kind of a Christ do they believe ? 

"A. In such a one whom the} 7 can make a liar, 
with impunity ; whose doctrine they can interpret 
as they please, and who does not care what a man 
believes, providing- he is an honest man before the 
public. 

"Q. Will such a faith, in such a Christ, save 
Protestants ? 

"A. No sensible man will assert such an ab- 
surdity. 

"Q. What will Christ say to them on the day of 
judgment? 

' 'A. I know you not, because you never knew me. 

"Q. Are Protestants willing- to confess their 
sins to a Catholic Priest, who alone has power 
from Christ to forgive sins ? k Whose sins you 
shall forgive, they are forgiven.' 

"A. No ; for they g-enerally have an utter aver- 
sion to confession, and therefore their sins will 
not be forg-iven throughout all eternity. 

"Q. What follows from this ? 

' 'A. That they die in their sins and are damned. " 

From Keenan's Catechism, page 180, we have 
some more light upon this subject : 

"Q. What else keeps many from becoming 
Catholics ? 

"A. What keeps many from becoming- Catholics 
is : They know very well if they become Catholics 
they must lead honest and sober lives, be pure and 
check their sinful passions ; and this they are un- 
willing to do." 

And again : 

"Q. Will those heretics be saved who are not 
g-uilty of the sin of heresy, and faithful in living 
up to the dictates of their consciences ? 



Romanism and Protestantism. 243 

"A. Invincible ignorance or inculpable ignor- 
ance of the true religion excuses a heathen and a 
Protestant from the sin of heresy, but such igno- 
rance has never been the means of salvation." 

And again : 

" Q. But is it not a very uncharitable doctrine 
to say that no one can be saved out of the Church ? 

"A. On the contrary, it is a very great act of 
charitv to assert most emphatically that for no one 
outside of the Catholic Church salvation is possi- 
ble, for Jesus Christ and His Apostles have taught 
this doctrine in very plain language. He who sin- 
cerely seeks the truth is glad to embrace it, in or- 
der to be saved." 

In Deharbe's Catechism No. 2, page 86, we find : 

"Q. Who have been the most dangerous ene- 
mies of the Church since the time of Constantine ? 

"A. The most dangerous enemies of the Church 
have been the heretics who have fallen away from 
the Catholic Church, and have founded heretical 
communities or sects. 

" Q. Why does God permit sects ? 

"A. Because by their schism from the Church 
He rids it of its rotten and diseased members." 

In Deharbe's Large Catechism there is an article 
on "The Necessity of Faith " (page 10) : 

"Q. Will any faith save us? 

"A. No ; only the true faith, which the Catho- 
lic Church teaches, will save us. 

"Q. Why has the Catholic Church alone the 
true faith ? 

" A. The Catholic Church alone has the true 
faith, because she alone received her faith from 
Christ himself through the Apostles, and has kept 
it uncorrupt. 

"Application. Rejoice that you are a child of 



244 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

the Catholic Church ; for as St. Augustine says, 
'There is no wealth so great, no treasure so pre- 
cious, as the Catholic faith, because it is the only 
true saving* faith.' " 

On page 40 of the same Catechism, the question 
is asked : 

"Q. Why is the Catholic Church called the only 
saving- Church ? 

"A. Because she alone was established by 
Christ and commissioned to save men's souls." 

And ag-ain : " What, then, are we oblig-ed to do 
to save our souls ? 

"A. To save our souls we are oblig-ed to believe 
the doctrines of the Catholic Church, to observe her 
commandments and to use her means of grace." 

Ag-ain: "What, therefore, do we believe by 
these words of the creed: 'I believe in the Holy 
Catholic Church ' ? 

"We believe that Jesus Christ has established 
an infallible Church, which we must all hear and 
obey if we wish to save our souls, and that this 
Church is no other than the Catholic Church." 

Day after day these questions and answers are 
taug-ht in upwards of four thousand parochial 
schools throug-hout our land. The children are 
early taught these expressions and imbibe these 
false notions. 

If Protestants are thus attacked, why should they 
be criticized if they reply to the attack ? 

In the encyclical letters of Pope Pius IX., dated 

December 8, 1849, December 8, 1864, August 10, 

1863, and in his Allocution of December 9, 1864, 

we read : 

" It is not without sorrow that we have learned 
another not less pernicious error, which has been 



Romanism and Protestantism. 245 

spread in several parts of Catholic countries, and 
has been imbibed by many Catholics, who are of 
the opinion that all those who are not at all mem- 
bers of the true Church of Christ can be saved. 

" Hence they often discuss the question concern- 
ing- the future fate and condition of those who die 
without having" professed the Catholic Faith, and 
g-ive the most frivolous reasons in support of their 
wicked opinion. It is indeed of faith, that no one 
can be saved outside the Apostolic Roman Church; 
that this Church is the one ark of salvation, that 
he who has not entered it will perish in the 
deluge. . . . 

" We therefore must mention and condemn ag"ain 
that most pernicious error which has been imbibed 
by certain Catholics, who are of the opinion that 
those people who live in error and have not the 
true faith, and are separated from Catholic unity, 
may obtain life everlasting*. " 

Pope Pius IX. further states: "The Catholic 
Religion with all its votes oug^ht to be exclusively 
dominant in such sort, that every other worship 
shall be banished and interdicted." 

Mr. Brownson, writing- under the approval of the 
American Papal Bishops, in the Quarterly Review 
of January, 1854, stated : 

" Save, then, in the discharge of our civil duties 
and in the ordinary business of life, there is and 
Can be no harmony between Catholics and Protes- 
tants. The two parties stand opposed ; separated, 
not merely by a papal wall, as some of the sects 
are, but by a great g"ulf. The people of Christ 
[i. e., the Romanists] are a peculiar people ; they 
stand out from the world, distinct, separate, and 
must, if they will be the people of Christ. They 
can have no fellowship with Belial, nor live in 
peace and harmony with his children [i. e., the 



246 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Protestants]. The Church triumphed over the 
Arians ; she will triumph over the Protestants. A 
union whose principle is hatred will not long- sub- 
sist, but will soon break asunder. Protestantism 
is doomed. The devil may be very active and full 
of wrath, and utter great swelling - words for a 
season because he knows his time is short, but 
Protestantism must gx> the way of all the earth." 

A book published in Boston by Priest Baddelley, 
which Catholic children are oblig-ed to study, and 
which accused Luther of adultery, blasphemy and 
drunkenness, states : " The Protestant Church, in- 
stead of leading- them to heaven, infallibly leads 
them to hell." 

The Omaha Roman Catholic org-an, in denounc- 
ing Protestantism, stated : " Protestantism has no 
principle or consistency ; it was the creation of a 
drunken, thieving- and lusting mob, and conse- 
quently must always act as the mob dictates." 

In a little book written by Mgr. Seg-ur, entitled 
" Plain Talk about Protestantism of To-day," we 
are told that "Protestant children are taught 
blasphemy in their homes. Protestantism is not a 
religion, but a rebellion, a cancer and the arch- 
enemy of souls." It plainly teaches that Prot- 
estants cannot be saved : 

" All Protestant sects acknowledg-e that salva- 
tion can be in the Catholic Church. On the other 
hand the Catholic Church has unceasingly pro- 
tested that she is the only true Church, and that it 
is necessary to belong- to her to be a child of God." 
(Plain Talk, pag-e 66.) 

"Protestantism is a pretended Christianity, 
without obedience to faith, without obedience to 



Romanism and Protestantism. 247 

the authority of the Church, without confession, 
without eucharist, without sacrifice, without works 
of penance, without practices of obligation, is con- 
demned by that Gospel whose name it so often 
usurps." (Pag-e 73.) 

"Protestantism, in g-iving- the reading- of the 
Bible as the fundamental rule of Christian faith, 
excludes the people from Christianity. In fact, 
many among- the poor cannot read, and what is a 
book for those who cannot read ? Ag-ain, many 
among- them have no leisure time to read, their time 
being- wholly taken up with manual labor, and what 
is a book to him who has no time to read it ? " 
(Pag-e 104.) 

We have quoted from several of Rome's principal 
catechisms, from one of her cherished Popes, and 
from several of her private authors : all with one 
accord declaring that there is no salvation out of 
the Catholic Church, and that all Protestants will 
be damned. The effect of this teaching- is most 
serious ; the g-enerality of her people believe this 
doctrine, and therefore they will not listen to 
people who have no faith. When they forsake the 
Church many of them become infidels. 

This doctrine, above all others, erects a barrier 
around the Catholic heart, and makes it very diffi- 
cult to convert him to the evang-elical faith. As a 
result of this doctrine, heretics have been excom- 
municated, anathematized and cruelly punished. 

This doctrine taug-ht to children, instills into 
them a deep-seated prejudice ag-ainst Protestants. 
The first sentence in the constitution for the paro- 
chial schools of this diocese declares: "He who 
educates the child, makes the man, rules the state. 



248 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope 

Imagine the man who was educated in the Roman 
Catholic school to consider all Protestants damned, 
as ruling- the state. How dare Protestants, who 
know the teaching's of Rome on this question, give 
support to her institutions ? How dare they send 
their children to schools that teach that all Prot- 
estants are living - in sin ? How dare they vote 
for Romanists, and Roman sympathizers ? It is 
contrary to g-ood judg'ment, and the laws of self- 
preservation. 

Protestantism is Loyal to Christ, Romanism 

to the Pope. 

Christ dwells in the hig-h and holy place, and in 

the humble and contrite heart. He is enthroned in 

heaven as the King- of king's, and in the heart of 

every Christian as the Saviour of the soul. 

Fulton says : " The Pope lives in a palace, fif- 
teen hundred feet long", eig"ht hundred in breadth, 
with twenty courts, miles of galleries, two hun- 
dred staircases, eleven hundred rooms, the con- 
struction of which cost more than one hundred 
millions of dollars. He has for his own use, four 
palatine cardinals, three prelates and a master, 
ten prelates of the private chamber, amongst whom 
are cup-bearers and keepers of the wardrobe ; two 
hundred and fifteen domestic prelates, and more 
than four hundred women ; two hundred and forty- 
nine supernumerary prelates of the private cham- 
ber, and four private chamberlains of the sword 
and cloak ; Roman patricians, a quartermaster, 
major, a correspondent general of the post, one 
hundred and thirty fresh private chamberlains 
of the sword and cloak ; two hundred and sixty- 
five honorary monsig-nori, extra urben, six honorary 



Romanism and Protestantism. 249 

chamberlains of the sword and cloak, and eight 
private chamberlains ; two private monsignori of 
the tonsure — barbers, in short — and eighteen super- 
numeraries : in all one thousand and twenty-five 
persons, beside Swiss guards, a legion of servants, 
etc." 

To support this brazen effrontery there are tens 
of thousands of priests and nuns all over the 
world extracting the pennies from the pockets of 
the poor Romanists. In this splendor the Pope 
lives, wears his triple crown, is borne about on the 
shoulders of men, enjoys his millions, gives forth 
his laws, and occasionally condescends to permit 
some votary to kiss his toe. 

Protestants are Loyal to Christ as the Head of the 
Church, and Romanists are Loyal to the Pope as the Head 
of Romanism. — Christ's will is the law of Protes- 
tants, and the Pope's will is the law of Romanists. 
The Protestants grow up into Christ, who is the 
Head over all. The Pope would exalt- himself 
above civil authority, and accept the appellations 
of "His Holiness," "The Pope," "The Vicar of 
Christ," "The Holy Father," etc. 

The Christ of Protestants is Perfect, the Pope of Ro- 
manism is Imperfect. - It was said of Jesus that he 
was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sin- 
ners ; "In him was no sin"; "the Lamb without 
spot or blemish." But as for the Popes, if you 
will study their biographies, you will be convinced 
that they represent a compound of cruelty, treach- 
ery, licentiousness, and other vices. The Christ of 
Protestantism is a living Christ. The Popes of 



250 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Romanism are dead. Jesus said, "Because I live 
ye shall live also" ; "Wherefore is he able to save 
to the uttermost, all that come unto God by him, 
seeing" he ever liveth to make intercession for 
them." He is called a very present help in time of 
trouble. But the Popes come and go ; not one of 
them is able to say : "Lo, I am with you alway." 
Not one is able to come, and comfort and relieve in 
time of distress. 

The Christ of Protestantism is an All-sufficient Media- 
tor ; the Pope of Romanism is Supplemented by Numer- 
ous Mediators. — Christ is called the " one mediator 
between God and man. " Protestants believe this and 
worship Him accordingly. Rome has many saints, 
ang-els, and the Virgin Mary for mediators, to 
whom they g-o in times of trouble, and to whom 
they g-o in vain. 

The Protestants have for their Leader the " Christ, the 
Son of the Living God " ; Romanists have for their 
Leader, the Pope, Scriptur ally called the Anti-Christ" — 
The Scriptures represent the " anti-christ" as 
" speaking lies in hypocrisy," "giving heed to the 
doctrine of demons," "forbidding to marrv," 
" commanding to abstain from meats," as "coming- 
with signs and lying wonders," "whose coming is 
after the working of Satan." All these represen- 
tations are accurately fulfilled in the history of the 
Popes. From such we gladly turn to Christ, the 
Son of God, who lives, loves, and lightens our 
burdens. 




Teaching the Catechism. (See page 331.) 



252 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope; 

Protectants Accept the New Testament of 

our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as their 

Infallible Rule of Faith and Practice, 

whereas Romanists Accept the 

Teachings of the Pope as their 

Infallible Rule of Faith 

and Practice. 

The Vatican Council (1870) decreed that when 
the Pope speaks " ex cathedra in defining- doc- 
trines of faith and morals to be held by the 
universal Church, he is possessed of infallibility." 
In the Pope's encyclical letter of January 10, 1890, 
he states : " The faithful should always take as 
the rule of their conduct the political wisdom of the 
ecclesiastical authority." And again : "The union 
of minds requires perfect submission of will to the 
Church, and the Sovereign. Pontiff, as to God Him- 
self." M. Preston, Vicar General of New York, in 
a sermon of January 1, 1888, stated : " Every word 
Leo XIII. speaks from his high chair is the voice 
of the Holy Ghost, and must be obeyed. To every 
Catholic heart comes no thought but obedience." 

But nowhere in the Bible are we taught to look 
to any human authority as being infallible ; no- 
where are we asked to obey a Pope. We are as- 
sured that God speaks to us through Christ ; He 
introduced the last will and testament of God ; He 
fulfilled the prophecies ; He is the soul of the Bible. 
A man may believe in the Pope and be lost, " but 



Romanism and Protestantism. 253 

lie that belie veth on the Son hath life." We obey 
Christ, for He said : " He that hath my command- 
ments, and keepeth them, he it is that obeyeth 
me"; "Ye are my ' disciples, if ye keep my com- 
mandments." John says: "We know that we 
have passed from death to life, because we keep his 
commandments." "We ask and receive, because 
we keep his commandments." Then we have the 
promise of entering- into the Golden City if we 
keep the commandments of His Book. But not a 
sing-le promise is made to any one for obeying* the 
Pope. 

Protestantism Stands for the True Church 

of Christ, and Romanism for the 

Apostate Church. 

Protestantism has opened the Bible, and throug-h 
it, has made Christ the Sun of the moral world. 
Protestantism g-oes at once to the Word of God, 
whereas Romanism permits a haug-hty priesthood 
to step between the laity and the g"ood old Book. 

Protestantism rejects Romish traditions, which 
make the Word of God of no effect. It consults not 
human compositions and infallible men, but goes 
direct to the great volume as the repository of its 
faith. 

Protestantism not only stands for the Bible, but 
it stands for the primitive Church, with all its 
doctrines, ordinances and fruits. It stands for the 
Gospel of Christ, which is the power of God unto 
salvation. It stands for faith in the Lord Jesus 



254 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Christ, reformation of life, and obedience to His 
will. It stands for the ordinances of Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper ; it stands for love to God, love 
to our fellow-men, and purity in our personal lives. 
It stands in short, for apostolic worship, apostolic 
organization, apostolic doctrines, apostolic ordi- 
nances, and apostolic worship. 

Romanism stands for many ordinances not found 
in the primitive Church. It stands for holy water, 
holy oil, holy fire, holy ashes, holy palm, holy can- 
dles, holy medals, holy grounds, holy relics, holy 
fathers, etc., etc., none of which are found in the 
primitive Church, and none of which are efficacious 
in blessing the soul and protecting from the storms 
of life. 

The apostate Church has popes, cardinals, arch- 
bishops, priests, acolytes, and porters, none of 
which were appointed by Christ. The apostate 
Church has mortal and venial sins, auricular con- 
fessions, penances, satisfactions, purgatory, masses, 
indulgences, relics, images, prayers to saints and 
angels, and a hundred other things that were not in- 
stituted by Christ and the apostles. She has corrupt- 
ed the truth, and preaches another gospel besides 
that which the apostles preached. Her history is a 
dark one — she has persecuted heretics, confiscated 
their property, and despoiled them of their rights. 

In all ages she has been intolerant and cruel. 
This very day in Vienna, the capital of Austria, 
the Protestant religion is proscribed, and those 
who conduct prayer-meetings in their own homes 
run the risk of being arrested for disturbing the 



o 

o 



OB 




256 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

peace. She gives neither religious or civil freedom 
where she has power.* 



Protestantism Stands for the Right of Pri- 
vate Judgment : Romanism Denies that Right. 

Protestants claim the right of every man to ex- 
ercise his mind on every subject brought before 
him; to examine into the truthfulness of every 
book that is presented to him ; to investigate the 
claims of every teacher that professes to represent 
Christ on earth ; to try every dog-ma by the sacred 
Scriptures ; to prove all things and hold fast that 
which is g*ood, and to think independently upon 
whatever his mind is capable of comprehending. 

As Protestants, we claim the right of indepen- 
dence of thoug-ht ; this right no human authority 
dare usurp. We may err in the exercise of this 
right, but this is no reason why we should surren- 
der the prerogative ; if we err, it is our own fault, 
and we are accountable to God. We claim the rec- 
ognition of this rig-lit as essential to both civil 
and religious liberty. Without exercising- it, no 
one can tell whether he is on the road to heaven or 
hell. By this rig-ht we judge ourselves, and exam- 
ine ourselves in view of our solemn and individual 
responsibility to God. 

On the other hand, Romanism denies the right 
to private judgment. Cardinal Wiseman, in his 
account of " The Roman Catholic Church " (chap- 
ter 2), states : "The Catholic Church professes to 

♦See Appendix 9: 



Romanism and Protestantism. 257 

be divinely authorized, to exact interior assent to 
all it teaches." 

The same Cardinal, in his preface to the " Exer- 
cises of St. Ignatius," says: "In the Catholic 
Church no one is ever allowed to trust himself in 
spiritual matters." 

Ig-natius, founder of the Jesuits, in his " Exer- 
cises," says : " That we may in all things attain 
the truth, that we may not err in anything-, we 
oug-ht ever to hold it as a fixed principle, that what 
I see white I believe to be black if the Hierarchal 
Church so define." The same saint on another oc- 
casion said : " We do not act as individuals ; we 
act in concert, as members of a great org-anization." 

The creed of Pope Pius IV., the Council of 
Trent, and the Bishop of England, ask the Roman 
Catholic laity to take the Holy Scriptures and in- 
terpret them according to the unanimous consent of 
the Fathers. 

The Catholic World (January, 1867) says: "What 
the Church commands is the law of the Christian's 
will." 

The New York Tablet, in speaking of the tem- 
poral power of the Pope, states: "The decrees of 
the Church forbid difference of opinion among 
Catholics on this subject." 

■ The eminent Vicar General Preston stated in a 
sermon, New York, January, 1888, "To every 
Catholic heart comes no thought but obedience. 
You say I will receive my faith from the Pontiff, 
but I will not receive my politics from him. You 



17 



258 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

must not think as you choose, you must think as 
Catholics." 

J. A. Froude, speaking" on what a Catholic ma- 
jority could do in America, says: "A Catholic ma- 
jority, under spiritual direction, will forbid liberty 
of conscience and will try to forbid liberty of wor- 
ship. It will control education, it will put the 
press under surveillance, it will punish opposition 
with excommunication, and excommunication will 
be attended with civil disabilities." 

A book prepared by F. X. Schoupe for use in 
Romish schools, and approved by Cardinal Man- 
ning-, states (pag-e 278): "The civil laws are bind- 
ing- on the conscience only so long- as they are con- 
formable to the rig-hts of the Catholic Church." 

Thus, my friends, you see on the question of 
private judg-ment, liberty of thoug-ht, Protestant- 
ism and Romanism are as far apart as day and 
nig-ht. 

Protestantism is Loyal to the Constitution of 

the United States : Romanism is Loyal 

to the Roman Hierarchy. 

While our Constitution may not be perfect in 
all its parts, yet it may be said that no other coun- 
try has, for a foundation, such a broad basis 
of laws for the universal happiness and pros- 
perity of her people. The greatest statesmen 
of the world have recog-nized our Constitution 
as the best of all. The highest compliment that 
can be paid it is seen in the happiness and 



Romanism and Protestantism. 259 

prosperity that it has secured for its people. The 
Constitution was made for the people ; it recog- 
nizes them as supreme, as being" the source of their 
own political power. 

We are self-governing. The Government of the 
United States, and of the individual States, is of 
the people, by the people, and for the people. To 
this Government Protestantism is loyal. In fact 
it is a Protestant Government. 

On the other hand, the Pope, in an encyclical, 
declares: "The Romish Church has a right to 
exercise its authority, without any limit set to it 
by the civil power ; the Pope and the priest ought 
to have dominion over temporal affairs. The 
Romish Church and her ecclesiastics have a right 
to immunity from the civil law. In case of conflict 
between ecclesiastical and civil powers, the ecclesi- 
astical ought to prevail." (" Our Country," by 
Strong, page 50.) 

Pope Leo XIII., in one of his encyclicals, states : 
" It is not lawful to follow one rule in private con- 
duct and another in the government of the state." 

The Catholic World, August, 1871, says : "We 
are to take with unquestionable docility whatever 
instruction the Church gives us." The same paper, 
in another issue, stated, "If allegiance to the 
Church demanded of us the opposition to political 
principles adopted by our civil government, we 
should not hesitate to obey the Church." And 
again : " We are purely and simply Catholics, and 
profess our unreserved allegiance to the Church, 



260 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

which takes precedence of and gives the rules of 
our allegiance to the state." 

Archbishop Katzer, Milwaukee, said at the Buf- 
falo Convention (September, 1891) : " Brethren, 
before I am a German, before I am an American, I 
am a Catholic." 

Bishop Gilmour, of Cleveland, Ohio, is credited 
with the following statement : "Nationalities must 
be subordinate to religion ; we must learn that we 
are Catholics first, and citizens next. God is above 
man, and the Church above the state." 

James Anthony Froude declares: "Every true 
Catholic is bound to think and act as his priest 
tells him ; and a republic of true Catholics becomes 
a theocracy administered by the clergy." 

M. Preston, on the witness-stand in New York, 
November, 1888, in reply to the question whether 
Roman Catholics must obey their bishops, right or 
wrong, stated : "They must obey, right or wrong." 

Weniger, on the Infallible Authority of the Pope, 
states : "One of the most glorious enterprises for 
the Catholic to engage in at this day, is the con- 
version of the United States to the Catholic Faith." 
And again this enthusiastic Jesuit states : " The 
interest of mankind demands a bridle by which the 
princes may be restrained and the people saved. 
This bridle might, by common consent, be placed 
in the hands of the Roman Pontiff." 

The Catholic World says: "While the state has 
rights, she has them only in virtue and by permis- 
sion of the superior authority, and that authority 
can only be expressed through the Church." This 



Romanism and Protestantism. 261 

ideal supremacy of the Church, this writer claims, 
*'is within the power of the ballot wielded by the 
Catholic hand." 

In one of Pope Leo's encyclical letters, he states: 
" It is an impious deed to break the laws of Jesus 
Christ for the purpose of obeying- a mag-istrate, or 
to transgress the laws of the Church under the 
pretext of obeying- the civil law. . . . Every Catholic 
should rigidly adhere to the teaching-s of the 
Roman Pontiff, especially in the matter of modern 
liberty, which already, under the semblance of 
honesty of purpose, leads to destruction. We ex- 
hort all Catholics to devote careful attention to all 
public matters, and take part in all municipal 
affairs and elections, and all public services, meet- 
ings and g-athering-s All Catholics must make 
themselves felt as active elements in daily political 
life in countries where they live. All Catholics 
should exert their power to cause the constitution 
of states to be modeled on the principles of the true 
Church." (November 7, 1890.) 

These quotations are sufficient to prove that 
Rome demands of her subjects loyalty to the Ro- 
mish hierarchy ; that she has little or no respect 
for g-overnment when it conflicts with her de- 
crees ; that the Church must take precedence of 
all else ; that her people are Catholics before they 
are Americans ; that her people have not political 
or relig-ious freedom, and that, in compelling- this 
obedience, she takes this freedom from the child 
before it is born, in the vows the parents are re- 
quired to make to the Church. Is this right ? Is 



262 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

the capital of our country Washing-ton or Rome ? 
We would not hear England, and now, in the name 
of liberty, must we hear Italy ? Shall we be obedi- 
ent to the Constitution of the United States or to 
the dictates of the Roman Pontiff ? Shall we live 
under the Declaration of Independence, that for- 
bids foreig-n potentates or ecclesiastics to dictate to 
American citizens, or shall we accept the adminis- 
tration of the Pope ? 

Protestantism Favors Progress : Romanism is 

its Foe. 

Cardinal Manning- once uttered these memorable 
words: "An appeal to history is a treason to the 
Church." Protestantism examines history to see 
whether these thing-s be so. The first conditions of 
progress are enlightenment, the application of 
science, and the practice of constitutional liberty. 
Protestant nations alone have made this progress. 
The nations subject to Rome seem to have no pow- 
er of expansion ; their present is dark, and their 
future full of evil foreboding-s. 

Protestant nations in elementary instructions 
are far in advance of Catholic nations. The Prot- 
estant religion rests upon the Bible, and the Prot- 
estants, to know it, must know how to read. The 
Catholic religion rests upon the sacraments and cer- 
emonies; it does not exact reading - . To know 
how to read is rather a dang-er, for it unsettles the 
principles of obedience and leads to heresy. 

The org-anization of education for all dates from 
the Reformation, and so does g-eneral progress and 



Romanism and Protestantism. 263 

the founding" of free institutions. When the Refor- 
mation began, art and science received a mighty 
impetus ; the intellect of Europe awoke from the 
dark night. 

The great discoveries in science, the great 
mechanical inventions, and the vast products of 
literature, have sprung- from Protestant brains. 
In the exhibitions at the great world's fairs the 
Protestant nations have led the way. The schools, 
colleges, and the press which shapes the thought 
of the public, are manned by Protestants. The 
annual sale of books in England and America 
alone, exceeds by millions the sale of books in all 
Catholic countries. Verily, the Catholic intellect 
is enslaved, while the Protestant intellect is free. 

Mr. Shaw states, in the ''Roman Conflict" (page 
439): • 

"The Church of Rome finds herself not only 
in the conflict with the Bible, but also with science 
and literature. Hence her antagonism to them. 
Botany and chemistry are in conflict with transub- 
stantiation. Astronomy reveals no purgatory. 
Political economy casts a shadow on Romish pol- 
itics. History gives her a horrible record. Liter- 
ature and the press are too free from her iron 
grasp. Mathematics and algebra will not bend to 
her measurements and quantities. Geology, while 
rich in fossil discoveries, reveals no relics. Philos- 
ophy, mental or natural, will not stoop to her dog- 
mas. Electricity, while belting* the globe with in- 
telligence by telegraph and telephone, bears no 
news from her departed mediators who have gone, 
gone beyond that bourne from whence no traveler 
returns." 



264 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Protestantism encourages and glories in the 
discoveries and inventions of her great men ; but 
Romanism has made it a principle to discourage 
inventions, to excommunicate and condemn those 
who saw beyond the narrow limits of her Inquisi- 
tion. Amongst her victims we name Virgilius, 
who taught that the earth was a sphere ; Coperni- 
cus, who discovered the relation of the heavenly 
bodies; Bruno, who taught the plurality of worlds ; 
Galileo, who discovered the moons of Jupiter, the 
belts of Saturn, and the true motion of the earth. 
And of modern times, Jos. Guibord, who for 
claiming the right to keep in the Canadian Insti- 
tute, Milton's Paradise Lost, the Works of Dante, 
Copernicus and Galileo, was excommunicated, was 
refused the sacrament on his death-bed, and refused 
burial in the Catholic cemetery, until the priests 
were compelled, by law, to permit his friends to in- 
ter his remains in the holy ground. 

These Holy Inquisitors have condemned many a 
good book, excommunicated many a noble man, 
and censured many a well-meaning editor. 

Says Pius IX. in his Syllabus: "It is an error 
to believe that the Roman Pontiff can and ought 
to be reconciled to, and agree with progress, liber- 
alism and civilization as lately introduced." 

Says Cardinal McCloskey : "Move in solid mass, 
in every state against the party pledged to sustain 
the integrity of the public schools." 

"Light on Popery" says: "Did the Church at- 
tempt to teach science ? Yes ; one Pope sent out a 
bull declaring that the earth was a flat plane, that 



Romanism and Protestantism. 265 

the sun came up through a hole in the east, and 
went down through another hole in the west. A 
story is told that a poor ignorant peasant, when 
the priest read the bull, asked : ' Who pulls the 
sun back to the other hole while we are asleep ?' 
This was too much for the priest, and the poor 
fellow was taken to prison, and on a popular festa, 
or saint's day, he was burned at the stake." 

The schools of Romanism do not give a liberal ed- 
ucation. They train the mind in a narrow groove. 
Their standard is taken from the decayed courts 
and depressed circles of past ages. They do not 
equip boys and girls for the activities of the United 
States ; they do not prepare them to compete with 
the pupils that pass through our public schools. 
The teachers in the parochial are not, as a rule, 
well educated. 

The statistics of the United States in proportion 
to every ten thousand inhabitants, show by the 
public schools of twenty-one States, three hundred 
and fifty illiterates, and by Roman Catholic schools 
fourteen hundred illiterates. In the State of New 
York the Roman Catholic system turns out three 
and a half as many paupers as the public school 
system. 

In Massachusetts, in 1875, there were one hun- 
dred thousand illiterates. Ninety-four thousand 
of them were foreign born. Ireland sent sixty- 
seven thousand. Every fourth Irishman that landed 
in New York was unable to write his own name.* 
To verify these statements examine the census of 

*See Appendix 10, on " Illiteracy." 



266 America or Eome: Christ or the Pope. 

Massachusetts, 1885, page 89. The Church had 
charge of the parochial schools in Ireland. 

The Catholic Review, 1871, states: "We do not 
indeed prize as highly as some of our countrymen 
the ability to read, write, and cipher. Some men 
are born to be leaders and the rest are born to be 
led." 

Bishop Cosgrove, of Davenport, Iowa, speaking 
of the Catholic papers of the country, says : " The 
combined circulation of all the Catholic papers of 
the country is less by thousands than that of 
the journals published by another single establish- 
ment, the Methodist Book Concern. Protestant 
exchanges charge that our people are ignorant, 
that they lack intelligence, and usually they have 
the best of the argument, for these facts are very 
stern and hard to face." 

Protestantism exerts a Salutary Influence 
on Nations : Romanism a Blighting 

Influence. 

Both of these systems claim to be Christian, but 
in their teachings and influence they are as far 
apart as the poles. Where Protestantism predom- 
inates, everything seems to be earnest, progressive 
and enthusiastic. Where Romanism predominates, 
the shadows of the dark ages linger, and society 
moves tremblingly. 

The Papacy found the Romans the masters of 
the world ; it left them the slaves of Austria and 
France. It found the Irish an active Celtic race ; 
it has made them hewers of wood and drawers of 



Romanism and Protestantism. 267 

water for other nations. It found Italy a bright 
and promising- nation, and it has disinherited her 
fair name and left her people in the depths of 
superstitions and the realm of infidelity. It found- 
Spain settled with a liberal and joyful people, and 
it has left her a huge and torpid mass, inactive 
and at least two hundred years behind the day. 
Philip Walsh, of Philadelphia, returning- from a 
trip to Spain, said : " I don't know what Spain was 
when Washington Irving was there, but I know 
what it is now, and if I owned Spain and hell I 
would sell Spain."* 

Where Romanism has the sway in the New 
World it is but little better than the Old. Where 
Romanism reigns in Central America, Mexico, and 
South America, the people groan under their yoke, 
and are frequently plunged into sanguinary revolu- 
tions. 

You may call the roll of all the nations where 
Romanism is dominant and there comes but one 
answer: "Only a small percent, are able to read 
and write, the masses living in ignorance, supersti- 
tion and idleness." On the other hand, where 
Protestantism reigns, there is the mighty din and 
noise of business, the greatness of intellectual 
achievements, and the swelling tide of progress. 

The Scotch, who were barbarians when Ireland 
was civilized, having adopted the principles of 
Protestantism, soon outstripped Ireland, and her 
people now speak for the education, industry and 
activity of Protestantism, while the Irish speak 

-See Appendix 3. 



268 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

for the ignorance, poverty and inactivity of Ro- 
manism. 

The Netherlands, with two millions of souls, 
with Protestant principles in their hearts, resisted 
the Spanish Catholicism which held Europe in its 
hand ; and as soon as the Netherlands became free, 
they covered the seas with their flag's and took a 
stand at the head of civilization. 

Sweden, with her six million inhabitants, buried 
half the year in snow, dominated by Protestant 
principles, in all the elements of civilization, beats 
sunny Italy, the home of Romanism. 

England is to-day the queen of the sea ; the Uni- 
ted States is the richest of nations ; Germany is 
taking- the lead in educational institutions : these 
are Protestant nations. The supremacy of the 
world belongs to them. Three centuries ago, it 
belonged to Spain, Italy, France and Austria. To- 
day the highest civilization, the greatest morality, 
the broadest liberty, the happiest homes, the most 
indomitable energy, the most liberal education, the 
purest Christianity, belong- unquestionably to the 
Protestant nations. 

Government statistics show that illiteracy, crime, 
and suicide are much greater where Romanism is 
dominant. 

Josiah Strong- says : "The hig-hest percentage of 
illiteracy given for any Protestant nation in the 
world is thirty-three. In all these countries where 
fifty per cent, or more are illiterate, the religion is 
Roman Catholic, Greek, or heathen." 

An examination of the Cyclopedia of Education, 



Romanism and Protestantism. 269 

edited by Kiddle and Schem, shows that the only 
nations " nearly free from illiteracy" are Protes- 
tant. 

Our Government statistics show that the illit- 
eracy among- the foreig-n-born population is thirty- 
eig-ht per cent, greater than among- native-born 
white people. 

The official returns of the suicides in England 
and France for four years, g-ive England sixty-four 
to the million, and France one hundred and twenty- 
seven. 

I have before me some statistics from Germany, 
taken from the New Englander, which show an aver- 
age of 117 illegitimate births in every 1000 births 
in the Protestant provinces, and 186 in every 1000 
in the Roman Catholic provinces. In Austria, the 
statistics g-ive for Protestants 60, and for the Ro- 
man Catholic 215. The averag-e number of illegiti- 
mate births in every 1000 for the Protestant nations 
of Europe is 88; and for the Roman Catholic, 145. 
The New Englander also states that Roman Catholic 
Dublin contains a larger proportion of prostitutes 
than any other city in Great Britain. 

The New York Tribune (Aug-ust 1, 1870) gives the 
nativity of the people arrested in New York, the 
ten years previous to 1870 as : United States, 55,000; 
Ireland, 460,000 ; Germany, 115,000 ; others, 86,000. 
In the penitentiaries there were 2,100 Irish, ag-ainst 
1,800 natives of the United States ; city prisons, 
44,000 Irish ag-ainst 25,000 natives of the United 
States. 

According to the census of 1890 (Census Bulletin 



270 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

No. 357) the Irish form 22 per cent, of the foreign- 
born population, Germans 30, English 10, Scan- 
dinavians 10, Scotch 2/^, Italians 2. 

Of the foreign-born criminals, according- to 
Census Bulletin No. 352, the Irish comprise 35 per 
cent., Germans 18, English 12, Scandinavians 2^, 
Scotch 3, Italians 2. 

Of the foreig-n-born paupers, according to 
Census Bulletin No. 352, the Irish comprise 51 per 
cent. , Germans 24, English 7, Scotch 2^ , Italians ^ . 

An article in the Forum for December, 1889, 
called "Immigration and Crime," by W. M. F. 
Round, goes over the same ground, and shows the 
same results from the census of 1880. 

Froude, the historian, has said : "The Roman 
Catholic Irish are a curse and a terror to all coun- 
tries to which they go." 

Of the inmates of prisons and reformatories in 
the United States in 1891, 42 per cent, were Roman 
Catholics. (See statement, page 28, "The Abnor- 
mal Man," by Arthur MacDonald, published by the 
United States Bureau of Education, 1893.) 

Says Mr. Seymour : "Name any Protestant coun- 
try or city in Europe, and let its depth of vice and 
immorality be measured and named, and I will name 
a Roman Catholic country or city whose depth of 
vice and immorality is lower still." 

The World Almanac for 1892 (page 165) says : 
"Italy takes the lead of the European murderous 
nations, with an average annual crop of murders of 
2,470," a ratio of 30 to every 10,000 deaths; then 
follows Spain, Austria, and France. Protestant 



Romanism and Protestantism. 271 

England is the last, with only 7 murders to the 
10,000 deaths. 

Romanism furnishes the majority of our paupers. 
In Massachusetts, out of 3,696 paupers of foreign 
birth, 2,829 were Irish. 

For years, I have, on all suitable occasions, made 
inquiries as to the religious belief of paupers and 
criminals, and I have met with the universal reply: 
"Nearly all are Catholics." A judge of a criminal 
court in New York city told me that he sat on the 
bench for sixteen } r ears, and of the criminals he 
sentenced those who professed any religion at all 
were, with but one or two exceptions, Roman Cath- 
olics. 

" Fifty Years in the Church of Rome," by Father 
Chiniquy : " The public statistics of the European, 
as well as of American nations, show that there is 
among* Roman Catholics nearly double the amount 
of prostitution, bastardy, theft, perjury and mur- 
der, that is found among* Protestant nations. 
Where must we, then, look for the cause of those 
stupendous facts, if not in the corrupt teachings of 
the theology of Rome ? How can the Roman 
Catholic nations hope to raise themselves in the 
scale of Christian dignity and morality as long as 
there remains two hundred thousand priests in 
their midst, bound in conscience every day to pol- 
lute the minds and the hearts of their mothers, 
their wives and their daughters." 

The fruits of the two systems speak emphatically 
in favor of Protestantism as the safer guide in 
morals, order, and intelligence. 



272 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 



CONCLUSION. 

We have shown in this lecture that Protestant- 
ism stands for Christ, and Romanism stands for 
the Pope ; that Protestantism stands for the true 
Church of Christ, and Romanism stands for the 
apostate Church ; that Protestantism means loyalty 
to the civil government, and Romanism means 
loyalty to the papal hierarchy ; that Protestantism 
stands for education and progress, whereas Roman- 
ism is its foe ; that Protestantism stands for the 
right of private judgment, whereas Romanism 
denies that right ; that Protestantism has exerted 
a salutary influence upon the nations, while 
Romanism has exerted a blighting influence. 

The difference between Protestantism and Ro- 
manism is a difference in principles — principles that 
will not mix any more than oil and water ; it is 
only a question of time, as to which one will be the 
dominant power. As the principles of Protestant- 
ism are right, and those of Romanism are wrong, 
it is our duty to exert our might and main to the 
pulling down of the strongholds of Romanism. 
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but 
spiritual. 

Against the costly indulgences of Romanism, let 
us oppose a glorious Gospel without price, and 
without penances, and without crossings. Against 
a hideous purgatory let us oppose a free salvation 
and a free heaven. Against popish legends, let us 



Romanism and Protestantism. 273 

oppose a free Bible. Against the dwarfed Catho- 
lic literature, let us oppose the vast intellectual pro- 
ducts of the Protestant brain. Against the celibacy 
of the priesthood, let us oppose the happy households 
of the Christian ministry . Over against the popish 
schools and Romish convents, let us set our free 
schools and state universities. Against the Latin- 
ized service of Romanism, let us set the heartfelt 
prayers and plain teachings of Protestantism. 
Against the costly Romish cathedrals, let us place 
our cheerful churches. Against the senseless 
chanting in Rome's worship, let us place our con- 
gregational singing. Against the narrowness and 
bigotry of the Roman Catholic Church, let us set 
the platform of Christian brotherhood. Against 
the cursing of heretics, let us welcome all who be- 
lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ. Against relics, 
images, saints and angels, let us place our crucified 
Saviour. Against the many ordinances of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church let us place the two simple ordi- 
nances of the Church of Christ — Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper. Against their rites, ceremonies, 
rituals and masses, let us place one Lord, one faith, 
one baptism, one Spirit, and one hope. Against 
Rome, let us place America. Against Romanism, 
let us place Protestantism. Against the Pope, let 
let us place Christ. 



18 



HOW ROME CONTROLS AND SUBSIDIZES THE PRESS. 



John Quincy Adams said of printing-, "It is the 
greatest invention that ever was compassed by 
the human genius." Its influence on human 
progress and happiness cannot be measured. 
Before this discovery, the masses were in ig - - 
norance, books were so scarce and expensive 
that even the wealthy and educated possessed 
but few of them, communities were isolated, 
justice silent, philosophy lame, and science at a 
stand. When printing- was introduced, civilization 
beg-an to advance toward the proud eminence which 
it now occupies. It has broug-ht all the treasures 
of science and literature from their secret places 
and scattered them among-st mankind. It has given 
the world the richest treasures of the most richly 
endowed intellect. Throug-h this medium the 
Aristotles of to-day have nations at their feet ; 
the words of the reformers are carried from shore 
to shore ; and mechanical inventions and scientific 
discoveries are at once heralded around the world. 

An Unfettered Press 
May expose the tyranny of tyrants and become the 
scourg-e of oppressors and the dread of criminals. 

(274) 



How Rome Controls the Press. 275 

Sheridan said : " Let me have an unfettered press, 
and I will defy them to encroach a hair's breadth 
upon the liberties of England." Isaac Errett 
said: "The man of letters, the devotee of science, 
the champion of freedom, the reformer, the states- 
man, the jurist, the theologian — all multiply their 
power infinitely, and secure for themselves almost 
ubiquity and omnipotence in the accomplishment 
of their mission. Franklin owed much of his power 
to the press ; in every emergency he sought it, and 
by its aid prepared the way for success. Without 
it, the foundations of the despotisms of the Old 
World had not yet been sapped, nor had the anthem 
of Freedom's triumph been sung- in the New." 

In 1683, Lord Effingham, the governor of Vir- 
ginia, was ordered tk to allow no person to use a 
printing-press on any occasion whatever." On 
the 24th of April, 1704, appeared the first regular 
newspaper in North America. It was the News 
Letter, published in Boston. One paper, at that 
time, seemed to be enough for America. One hun- 
dred years later there were about three hundred 
newspaper establishments. There are, at present, 
in the United States, about twenty thousand news- 
papers, with forty million subscribers, and with a 
circulation of three billion two hundred and fifty 
million. When we consider the size of the news- 
paper of to-day, the talent employed, the capital 
invested, the enlarged range of subjects discussed, 
its wide circulation and the eagerness with which 
it is read, we must acknowledge it, as the mightiest 
instrumentality man can employ to influence the 



276 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope 

thoughts, feelings and actions of his fellow men, 
and to mold public opinion for good or evil. Its 
victories sink into significance all the conquests of 
all the generals of the world. Such a power in 
civilization should always be on the side of truth, 
justice and righteousness, always loyal to the 
highest interests of our country, always advocating 
and defending our free institutions, and always free 
from Jesuitical influences. 

Rome and the Public Press. 

I am aware, in speaking on this question, I 
occupy an unenviable position, and may possibly 
become the subject of criticism and censure. The 
men whom we shall discuss, and possibly offend, 
never forget, and never forgive, and on all oppor- 
tune occasions will retaliate ; yet I am persuaded 
that this subject should receive a most candid and 
painstaking discussing. 

Rome is Seeking the Control of our Civil 
Institutions. 

It is her aim to secure control of all instrumen- 
talities that will increase the power of the Church 
and enable her to overthrow our civil, educational 
and religious liberties. 

She is endeavoring to manage the public school, 
to name the text-books used, to control the school 
boards, to name the religion of the teachers em- 
ployed, or else bring about a division of the public 
school funds. She is seeking to place her own sons 
in the high official positions of the Government. 



278 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

She places judges on the bench, councilmen in the 
chair, policemen on the streets, and officers in com- 
mand of the army and nav} r . In the number of 
public officials she has the lead in many of our 
large cities. She has more commissioned officers 
in the regular army than her numerical strength 
justifies. She has sufficiently Romanized the navy 
to introduce the confessional-box in some of our 
men-of-war. With the exception of the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury and his immediate assist- 
ants, the heads of the important subordinate 
departments of the treasury are Roman Cath- 
olics. Recently five hundred printers were dis- 
missed from the Government Printing-office at 
Washington, and not one of them was a Roman- 
ist. Go through the Government Printing-office, 
which contains twenty-five hundred workmen, and 
you will find the department filled with foreigners 
and meet with the Irish brogue at ever} 7 step. 
Many of them come from early mass to the saloon 
and then stagger into the printing-office. It is 
well known in Washington that a Roman Catholic 
who has personal influence with a Washington 
priest can procure and retain a position in our 
nation's capital. 

Rome is making converts rapidly among the 
Indians and the colored people. She has laid broad' 
plans to secure control of all agencies that will 
effectually aid her in obtaining sufficient power in 
this country to warrant her in asserting her abso- 
lute authority. And one of the most effectual 
agencies to aid her in the accomplishment of 



How Rome Controls the Press 279 

disloyal purposes is the secular press. Roman 
Pontiffs place a high estimate upon the power of 
the press. 

Leo XIII. said to a deputation of Catholic jour- 
nalists (February 23, 1879), "A person would not 
deviate far from the truth were he to ascribe this 
deluge of evils and the miserable condition of the 
times to the wickedness of the press. . . Where- 
fore, since custom has made newspapers a necessity, 
Catholic writers for them should labor principally 
to apply to the salvation of society and the defense 
of the Church, that which is used by the enemy." 

A decade ago, Henry F. Durant, the founder of 
Wellesley College, predicted that "before twenty 
years the leading journals of our country would be 
in the hands or under the control of the papal 
Church." It may be of interest to examine into 
the methods employed by Rome in her efforts to 
secure control of the press. 

1. Rome Claims This Prerogative. 

The Decrees of Trent on the Restriction of the Press, 

Books, etc. — The tenth rule reads thus : 

"Wherefore, if, in the noble city of Rome, any 
book is to be printed, let it first be examined by the 
Vicar of the supreme Pontiff, and the master of 
the sacred palace, or by persons appointed by our 
most Holy Lprd. But in other places, let its ex- 
amination and approval belong to the bishop, and 
an inquisitor of that state or diocese in which the 
printing will be executed, and let it be approved by 
their hand. . . . Let the approbation itself be 
given in writing, and let it appear authentically in 
the front of the book, whether manuscript or print- 



280 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

ed ; and let the proving" and examination, and all the 
rest, be attended to gratuitously. Moreover, in the 
several states and dioceses, let the houses or places 
where printing- is performed, and libraries of books 
are for sale, be frequently visited by persons deputed 
for that object by the bishop, or by his vicar, and 
also by the inquisitor of heretical depravity, that 
none of the prohibited thing-s may be printed, sold 
or kept. Let all librarians and booksellers have 
in their libraries a catalogue of the books for sale, 
which they keep, with the subscription of such 
persons. And let them keep or sell no other books, 
or by any means deliver them, without the license 
of the same deputies, under the penalty of the 
confiscation of the books, or other punish- 
ments, to be inflicted at the discretion of the 
bishops, or inquisitors. And let the buyers, 
readers, and printers be punished at the discretion 
of the same. . . . Let the punishment be fixed 
either by the loss of the book, or by some other 
pains, at the discretion of the same bishops or 
inquisitors, according- to the character of the con- 
tumacy, or of the crime. In conclusion, it is 
enjoined upon all the faithful, that no one presume 
ag-ainst the authority of these rules, or the pro- 
hibition of this index, to retain or read any con- 
demned books. But if any one shall keep or read 
the books of heretics, or the writing's of any 
authors condemned and prohibited for heresy, or 
for the suspicion of a false dog-ma, let him imme- 
diately incur the sentence of excommunication. 
But he who shall read or keep books interdicted on 
any other account, besides the guilt of mortal sin, 
with which he is affected, let him be punished 
severely at the discretion of the bishop." 

We have translated the word "liber" "book;" 
thoug-h literally, the word means any writing- con- 



How Rome Controls the Press. 28 L 

sisting of two or more leaves. That the Council 
intended to include in its decree, any written docu- 
ment, treatise, tract, or newspaper, there is abund- 
ant evidence. This decree was submitted to Pope 
Pius IV., and after examination was given the 
following* eulogistic approval : 

" By our apostolic authority, we approve, by 
these presents, the index itself, together with the 
rules prefixed to it ; and we command and decree 
that it be printed and published, and that it be 
received everywhere by all Catholic universities, 
and by everyone whatsoever ; and that these rules 
be observed ; prohibiting" each and all, as well as 
ecclesiastics, secular and regular, of every grade, 
order and dignity ; and laymen, no matter what 
their dignity and honor, that no one may dare to 
keep or read any publication contrary to the com- 
mand of these rules, and the prohibition of the 
index itself." 

Gregory XVI., following the spirit of this decree, 
anathematized the freedom of the press in the fol- 
lowing words : " It is worthy of public execration 
and the fires of everlasting judgment." In Bel- 
gium, on the strength of this decree, absolution is 
refused to those who subscribe to secular news- 
papers. 

In the paper entitled " The Catholics of the Nine- 
teenth Century," we find the following : " The 
supremacy asserted for the Church in matters of 
education implies the additional and cognate func- 
tions of the censorship of ideas, and the right to 
examine and to approve or disapprove, all books, 
publications, writings, and utterances intended for 



282 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

public instruction, enlightenment or entertain- 
ment " 

The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore decreed: 
" Let that only be held to be a Catholic newspaper 
which sets forth and defends the doctrines of the 
Church, narrates the progress of the Church at 
home and abroad, and is ready to submit in all 
things to the authority of the Church." This decree 
amonsfst the Roman Catholics is unalterable and 
infallible. 

Rome not only claims this, but she has organized 
to carry out her claim and pretensions : 

2. The Catholic Truth Society. 

This society is one of the results of the first 
American Catholic Congress at Baltimore. It 
was organized at St. Paul, Minn., March 1, 
1890. Prof. Townsend says: "Recently there 
has been published the fact that this society is ' to 
beg", borrow or buy space in the secular papers — 
the dailies, weeklies, and monthlies,' all over the 
civilized globe, that it may thereby defend and 
extol the Papacy. Another purpose of this society 
is to overrun newspaper offices with Roman Catho- 
lic employees, and to see that Roman Catholic 
youths are properly qualified for journalistic work. 
. . Another object is to control, in a quiet 
way, the utterances of those publications that are 
owned and controlled by men who are nominally 
. Protestants." 

In 1892 there was a Congress of the Catholic 
Truth Society held in Liverpool. Some of their 
discussions appeared in the Catholic Times and the 
Catholic News, from which the following statements 
were taken. An English bishop said: "We can 
get a report in the newspapers wherever we like." 



How Rome Controls the Press. 28o 

Father Roth well said : " It is a greater g-ain for a 
Catholic article to appear in a non-Catholic paper 
than in a Catholic one." 

The following- item was also made public : 
"There is at least one Catholic journalist in every 
larg-e town ; the journals of America and Europe 
have on their various staffs, Roman Catholics in 
larger numbers than their relative ability, or than 
their relative numerical strength in these countries, 
would warrant." 

3. The Apostolate of the Press. 

This mighty organization extends over the 
world, and is carried on with great subtility and 
secrecy. Archbishop Vaug-han sa}^s : "We are in 
the ag-e of the apostolate of the press. It can pen- 
etrate where no Catholic can enter. It can do its 
work as surely for God as for the devil. It is an 
instrument in our hands." It has its hand on the 
Associated Press. The largest dailies of New 
York, Boston, Chicag-o, Philadelphia, San Francis- 
co, and many other cities, are under its spell ; and 
so surreptitious is the work, that many are unaware 
of it. 

4. Classes in Journalism. 

I am told that nearly every Jesuit colleg-e has a 
class in journalism, where young- men are trained for 
positions on the daily press. Gen. T. M. Harris says 
he has " g-ood reasons to believe that the Jesuits in 
the United States have found means to colonize 
one or more of their graduates in journalism on the 



284 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

staff of nearly every great daily paper in our 
country." 

I copy the following- from the Boston Citizen; 
"Schools are formed where boys and girls from the 
tenderest age are trained under the priesthood into 
the intricacies of the printing-office and other 
places, and fitted to enter in their pupilage, the 
various lines of drudgery opening" before them, from 
the printer's devil to editor — the work to be kept 
up from year to year, for the purpose of surveil- 
lance. This will enable them to have such a cor- 
don of pressmen, compositors, editors, etc., as from 
time to time to fill offices in the establishments." 

Another method of influencing- the press is by 

5. The Use of Money. ■ 

Some years ago I read a statement, said to have 
been made by Murat Halstead before an associa- 
tion of editors, to the effect that many editors were 
guilty of selling the influence of their papers to 
the highest bidder and to the mightiest power. 

Reports reached the public from the Congress 
of the Catholic Truth Society, of Liverpool, that 
"Roman clergy who were anxious to secure glow- 
ing reports in the daily papers, could gain their 
purpose by being obsequious to the reporters of 
those papers." 

Mr. Markoe, the secretary- of the Catholic Truth 
Society, said at the World's Columbian Catholic 
Congress : "One of the objects of this society is: 
The publication of short timely articles in the 
secular press (to be paid for if necessary) on Catho- 
olic doctrines." 

A Catholic informer, whose name is withheld 



How Rome Controls the Press. 285 

from the public, says : "I have heard from a good 
authority that the Jesuits pay leading- newspapers ; 
therefore money is the reason why the papers are 
silent as to Jesuitical doing's and to matters which 
would harm them if inserted. Money is of no 
consequence to a Jesuit Superior, because there is no 
lack of donating- to their order." This, of course, 
is hush-money. 

The Jesuit starts on the assumption that the 
Roman priesthood is sacred, and that their frailties 
should not be published, and therefore the flood of 
priest crime, drunkenness, and infanticide that 
would otherwise fill our columns is consig-ned to 
oblivion, while any weakness of a Protestant cler- 
gyman is doubly exag-g-erated and spread before the 
people. I have in my possession more than a 
score of cases of crime and disgrace on the part of 
the Roman clergy, about which the daily press, in 
the community where the disgrace appeared, said 
not a word. A Rev. Mr. Hill, a Protestant min- 
ister of Newark, Ohio, made a mistake, not crim- 
inal either, and the matter traveled far and near 
as an Associated Press dispatch, and in the Cin- 
cinnati and Columbus papers special articles ap- 
peared. At the same time a drunken priest in Cin- 
cinnati was g"uilty of two offenses, either of which 
was of a more serious character than Mr. Hill's, 
but not one word appeared in the Associated Press 
dispatches. John D. Sullivan, a Roman Catholic 
clergyman of Syracuse, New York, was sentenced 
to eleven years' imprisonment for the crime of se- 
duction, and the great dailies of Boston said not a 



286 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

word about it ; but when an Episcopal minister in 
New Jersey fell into disgrace, a Boston editor sent 
a special reporter to that State to obtain the par- 
ticulars for publication. 

6. The Boycott. 

If an editor makes it his business to insert news 
damaging- to the Roman Catholic Church, then his 
paper is boycotted. The Jesuit directs the Catho- 
lic subscribers and advertisers to take effective 
measures to silence "the slanderous paper," and 
immediately the Roman Catholic subscriber stops 
his paper and the Roman Catholic advertiser with- 
draws his patronage. A number of editors have 
told me that such was the case, " and as Protestants 
don't care, it is not necessary to injure our busi- 
ness by publishing* news damaging- to Romanism." 
But Protestants do care ! There are thousands of 
patriotic men who are demanding- fair play, and 
the day is near at hand when this demand will be 
so strong- that it will be heard with a most telling- 
effect. 

7. By the Establishment of Catholic News- 
papers. 

Mr. Wolff said at the Catholic Congress: "It is 
all-important that there should be a vig-orous, intel- 
ligent and ably conducted Catholic newspaper 
press. . . . The best way to keep bad newspa- 
pers out of a family is to furnish it with good 
sound Catholic newspapers. . . . The estab- 
lishment of a Catholic daily newspaper is necessary, 
because Catholic weekly journals cannot quickly 
expose and refute the falsehoods and calumnies 



How Rome Controls the Press. 287 

that are constantly invented and spread abroad 
respecting* the Church and especially respecting 
the Holy See. . . . There is to-day more than 
enoug"h capital invested by Catholics in non- 
Catholic newspapers all over the land to amply 
provide for a dozen or a score of Catholic dailies. 
. . . There are, on the great non-Catholic dailies 
of our large cities, Catholics who, in sagacity, 
quickness, fullness of knowledge, and all that goes 
to make a successful journalist, are peers to their 
non-Catholic fellow-workers." 

The Fathers (?) of the Third Plenary Council 
declared : 

"It is greatly to be desired that in each of our 
larg-e cities a Catholic daily newspaper be main- 
tained, fully equal to the secular daily papers in 
financial streng-th, and the sag-acity, vigor and 
power of its writers. Nor is it necessary that the 
word Catholic be displayed at the head of its pages. 
It is sufficient that, in addition to recent occurren- 
ces and all those things which in other daily news- 
papers are eagerly desired, it defend, whenever a 
proper opportunity presents itself, the Catholic 
Church from the assaults and calumnies of its ene- 
my, and explain its doctrine ; and, moreover, that 
it carefully abstain from placing before its readers 
anything that is scandalous, indecent, or unbe- 
coming." 

Journalism is dependent upon four instrumental- 
ities, and therefore may be commonly divided into 
four departments : the mechanical department, the 
Associated Press department, the editorial depart- 
ment, and the distributing department. 

1. The Mechanical Department. 
This is controlled largely by unions — the Typo- 



288 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope 

graphical Union, the Stereotypers' Union, the 
Pressmen's Union, the Mailers' Union, etc. 
Among" these unions there are many members 
and officers who belong- to the Roman Catholic 
Church. The number is so larg*e and so influential 
that were they to cease operations, it would greatly 
inconvenience, if not altogether paralyze, the 
mechanical department of some of our most influ- 
ential dailies. In many cities these unions are 
strong* enough to coerce the people into their 
methods, to demand their own wag-es, and to name 
the number of hours of labor. 

2. The Associated Press Department. 

This is an organization or bureau for furnishing- 
telegraphic news to the daily press. A number 
of larg-e dailies may consolidate under the manag-e- 
ment of a joint committee that appoints agents, 
contracts with telegraph companies, distributes 
the news to various associations, sells it to individ- 
ual papers, and transmits the proceeding's of Con- 
gress, State legislatures, public documents, and 
occurrences of interest, by telegraph, cablegram, 
etc. The items of news g-athered and forwarded 
by the Associated Press are regarded as of g-eneral 
interest to the citizens of our country, and it is in 
the power of these institutions to supply or sup- 
press news for publication. Many who collect the 
news-items and write the dispatches are either 
Romanists or Roman sympathizers. Many news- 
items of general interest have been suppressed, 



How Rome Controls the Press. 289 

while others of less importance have been pub- 
lished. 

"For years our American papers," says Prof. 
Townsend, " have been filled with extracts from 
speeches in the House of Commons of men of the 
O'Brien and Davitt stamp, while the speeches of 
the best men in Great Britain have been wholly 
ignored, and we have been obliged to wait for the 
reliable reports of such scholars and journalists as 
George Pellew, George W. Smalley, and Edmund 
Yates, before we could get truthful news as to what 
had really been going on in the British empire. 
Does someone ask how this has happened? Well, 
the secret not very long since was incidentally 
disclosed by the Boston Herald, in the statement 
that J. J. Clancy, the Irish Nationalist agitator, a 
prominent Roman Catholic, had charge of the Irish 
news department of the Associated Press in Lon- 
don." 

For years the Associated Press of Chicago was 
controlled directly or indirectly by Alexander 
Sullivan and Patrick Egan, Irish Roman Catholics. 
Associated with these men were others of the 
Jesuitical stripe. And while trouble has passed 
over some of these Romanists, resulting in their 
retirement, yet the vacancies have been filled by 
other Romanists. Rev. John W. Allen, for years 
a prominent Chicago pastor, declares : "The Asso- 
ciated Press is controlled by Romanists, and the 
daily papers are all influenced by Romanists." 

The managers of the Associated Press in many 

of our large cities have applied the sifting process ; 

that which is of interest to the Papacy is heralded, 

and that which is injurious is suppressed, 
;9 



290 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Archbishop Corrigan receives six times more 
space in the Associated Press than any bishop in 
any Protestant denomination. 

Why is it, just prior to the election in 1894, 
when the New York priests urged their parishioners 
to vote for the Tammany candidates, and thereby 
created a stir in political circles that was of gene- 
ral interest to the country, that none of their utter- 
ances appeared in the Associated Press? Had Prot- 
estant ministers thus harangued their people to 
vote for the candidates of a certain party, and 
made the seditious threats, boasts, and promises 
that were uttered by the New York priests, the 
country, far and near, would have heard of it. 

I have in my possession replies to a series of inqui- 
ries that I sent to reliable men in twenty leading 
American cities, and, without an exception, they 
state that many of the daily papers are either 
directly or indirectly under the influence of Rome, 
and in the majority of the replies we are informed 
that either Romanists, or Roman sympathizers, 
write the Associated Press dispatches. 

At the Baltimore Catholic Congress, 1889, the 
advisability of establishing a vigilant Catholic 
press agency was discussed, and urged upon the 
attention of Catholic journalists, priesthood and 
laity. After discussing the power of the Associa- 
ted Press agency, and the establishment of Catho- 
lic daily newspapers, and the victories that could 
be gained by them, Mr. McGloin said : 

"We may now consider another, and to us Cath- 
olics a more grateful picture. I refer to the glo- 



How Rome Controls the Press. 291 

rious and yet more recent victory achieved b}- brave 
German Catholics over the great Iron Chancellor, 
Bismarck. It is conceded, under God, that this 
speedy and brilliant victory is due, in a larg-e 
extent, to the German Catholic press. Had 
Germany in the days of Luther such a Catholic 
press as she has now, . . . there would never 
have been any effective or enduring- Protes- 
tantism. . . . Considering- the potency of the 
press, we may rest assured that Almig-hty God did 
not disclose it to mankind in order that it might serve 
mainly as an instrument of evil. In his own g-ood 
time he will establish his own invincible dominion 
over it, and bend its principal force into the ser- 
vice of relig-ion." 

3. The Editorial Department. 

In this department we refer to the literary pro- 
ductions, the clipping's, g-eneral supervision, and 
sifting- in the editorial rooms. There are many 
conscientious men at work in this department, but 
the editors of many of our leading- dailies, in order 
to maintain the circulation among-st Romanists 
and to receive the patronage of Roman Catholic 
advertisers, become servile to the interests of the 
papal church. They may not defend their doctrines, 
but they refuse to publish that which in any way 
would bring- the Roman Catholic Church into dis- 
repute. 

The Editorial Staff in London. — The Weekly Register 
says : " There is not in London a single newspaper 
of which some of the leading- reporters and one or 
more of the chief persons on its staff are not Ro- 
man Catholics." 



292 America or Rome: Christ or the 1?ope. 

"The number of Catholic journalists in London is 
very large," says the Catholic Times, " Anti-papal 
Punch has its F. C. Bernard, who was at one time 
on the point of entering" the priesthood ; and even 
the Standard, which was established with the 
special intention of attacking the Catholic religion, 
now includes Catholics on its staff. On the Times, 
Morning News, and the Daily Chronicle* Catholic pens 
are at work ; also on the Saturday Review, the Spec- 
tator, and lighter weeklies, such as the World. The 
monthly magazines have many contributors of the 
same creed — in evidence of which we may mention 
that a glance over the forthcoming number of 
Tinsley shows us no fewer than four articles written 
by Catholics." 

The United States — Prof. Townsend said, in an 
address delivered in the Boston Music Hall : 

"There is not a daily paper in Boston but has 
one or more Catholics upon its reportorial staff ; 
there is not a paper in Boston, issuing a morn- 
ing edition, but has one or more Roman Catholics 
in the editorial rooms ; and the Protestant report- 
ers on these papers know, if they should present 
facts for publication, detrimental to the Papal 
Church, no matter how true or of how much pub- 
lic interest, their communications would never see 
the light. Such communications go from the ed- 
itorial rooms, not to the hands of the compositors, 
but into the editorial waste-basket." 

The American Citizen, Saturday, January 5, speak- 
ing of the daily press of Boston, says : "All are 
so tied to Rome by financial, or political, or social 
obligations that they could not — without unwel- 
come sacrifice — be true to American Protestant 
principles." 



How Rome Controls the ]?ress. 293 

But Boston is not the only New England city 
whose press is servile to the interests of Rome. 
One or more leading- dailies in Providence, Man- 
chester, Lowell, Lynn and Worcester, are in bon- 
dage to the Jesuitical power. We have already 
spoken of the press of New York city. In Washing- 
ton we are in the lap of Rome ; here many items of 
news of great interest to Protestants are suppressed, 
and that which is of interest to Catholics is ex- 
tolled to the skies. An editor of a Washington 
daily, upon being asked why this was done, replied ; 
"Washing-ton is a Roman Catholic city, and we 
cannot afford to offend the Church." In the great 
American cities of the West, whose population is 
largely foreign, you will find the leading dailies 
more or less in the service of the Papacy. In a 
letter of January 8, 1895, from Nast, the celebrated 
artist, I quote : "I think you will find a Catholic 
spy in every newspaper office, and that he has more 
or less influence." 

In Denver, Col., a couple of years ago, there was 
in connection with every daily paper, a Romanist, 
either a proprietor, or prominent on the editorial 
staff. In a discussion on the use of Meyer's History 
in the public schools, a single priest had more in- 
fluence with the press of that city than had the 
Protestant Ministerial Association. The priest's 
attack on the history was published in full, but the 
reply that was prepared at the request of the As- 
sociation by a committee of Protestant ministers, 
was refused publication. 



294 America or Rome: Chris? or the Pope. 

The Distributing Department. 

A member of the Boston Committee of One Hun- 
dred, who had personal connection with the distri- 
bution of educational literature of that committee, 
says: "The news-stands and ag-ents cannot be 
greatly depended upon. . . . More than once 
the committee was greatly annoyed by the conduct 
of the employees of the post-office department." It 
is the duty of these news ag-encies to faithfully 
distribute the papers and other literature placed in 
their hands for distribution. But the editor of 
every newspaper that has taken sides upon the 
school controversy ag-ainst Rome could tell you of 
the boycotts his paper has received. The Ameri- 
can News Co., of New York, with sub-ag-encies all 
over the country, has for its manag-er and princi- 
pal owner, Patrick Farrelly, of New York City. 
He is a prominent Irish Roman Catholic. He 
believes in suppressing- publications that are 
antagonistic to the Papacy. In Mr. Nast's letter, 
to which I referred, is an interesting- statement 
bearing- upon this subject : "I started a paper of 
my own two years ago, but was soon crushed out 
of existence. The President of the American News 
Co., Patrick Farrelly, did all he could ag-ainst me, 
and not having- enoug-h money to g-et the best of 
him, I had to g-ive up." 

For some reason periodicals and books of an anti- 
Catholic character are not kept on sale at the news- 
stands of this agency, neither are they found 
among-st the publications that are on sale in our 



How Rome Controls the Press. 295 

railway coaches. But the anti-Christian works of 
Ingersoll and many novels of a questionable char- 
acter are spread before the people. 

In addition to what has already been said, allow 
me to call your attention to several examples of the 
suppressing" of news and of unfairness : 

Boston. — Numerous meetings have been held in 
Music Hall and Tremont Temple, Boston, of great 
interest to millions of free Americans. These 
meeting's have been addressed by prominent men, 
and not one word has been in the daily press of 
Boston or passed to the outside world as Associated 
Press matter. Such men as Dr. R. S. MacArthur, 
Prof. L. T. Townsend, Dr. Lorimer, Joseph Cook, 
and 'others equally prominent, have spoken to 
immense audiences in these auditoriums, and yet 
their names and their words have been kept from 
the public, while insignificant meetings of a differ- 
ent character have been heralded. 

San Francisco.— Sunday, October 14, 1894, Rev. 
Mr. Henry, who for some thirty Sundays had been 
conducting patriotic services in the Metropolitan 
Temple, was assaulted by a Catholic mob. A 
statement of the facts was made by Mr. Henry, 
and was sent to each of the leading - dailies of the 
city, and not one of them would insert it. Had 
such an attack been made by Protestants on a 
Catholic priest, it would have been news for the 
Associated Press. 

The Concord Attack. — In the latter part of the year 
1894, some patriotic men were marching peacefully 
through historic old Concord, and a furious attack 



296 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

was made upon them by a mob of Romanists, but 
nothing* appeared in the Associated Press about it, 
Denver, Colorado. — During- my pastorate in Denver 
I addressed larg-e congregations ; the leading- 
dailies were anxious to make reports of my dis- 
courses, and finally one of them paid me for the 
exclusive rig-ht to publish my Sunday evening" lec- 
tures. Everything went charming-ly along- until I 
came to the subject of " Romanism," and then the 
press, with one accord, turned ag-ainst me, and 
published a false report about a marriag-e ceremony 
that I performed, in which I united a Protestant to 
a Roman Catholic, and a Romanist wrote a leng-thy 
account of it for the Associated Press. In their 
reports they claimed that I donned the g-arb of a 
priest, and deceived the young- ladyand her mother, 
who were Spaniards. Soon after these reports 
were published, I obtained statements and affidavits 
from the parties married, and the witnesses thereto, 
to the effect that no such thing- had ever been talked 
about or taken place (statements and affidavits which 
I have in my possession and which show that priests 
and press maliciously lied about the matter), and 
they were refused publication. The Catholic paper 
of Denver, edited, at that time, by Father Malone, 
published an account of the affair in which he 
made five false statements, and when I confronted 
him with the facts, he promised, in the presence of 
two witnesses, to publish my refutation, which 
included the affidavits above mentioned ; but the 
little Jesuit failed to keep his promise. During- 
this controversy I was President of the Pastors' 



How Rome Controls the Press. 297 

Association of Denver, and the ministers with one 
accord stood by me, as did the members of my own 
congregation and the substantial and patriotic 
Protestants of Denver.* 

'Toledo, Ohio. — The daily papers of Toledo, Ohio_, 
with one exception, are under the influence of Rome. 
Rome has her daily papers in this city, without 
the name "Catholic" at the head of them; they 
have suppressed news of general interest to many 
of our citizens. They have discriminated in favor 
of Roman Catholics. I have had some personal 
experience with these papers. On my coming" to 
Toledo, and for some time thereafter, the Commer- 
cial, Bee and News made favorable mention of both 
my abilities and my labors. But as soon as I be- 
gan my discourses on "Romanism," these papers, 
either directly, or indirectly, began to defend "Ro- 
manism " and to abuse, defame and slander me. 
They misquoted and misrepresented what I said. 
When Father Elliot, the Roman evangelist, 
came to this city, these papers endorsed him 
and his work at great length ; they supported 
him in both editorial and local columns ; they 
gave copious extracts from his lectures and spoke 
of his large congregations. At the same time 
Protestants were conducting meetings in the 
National Union Auditorium, and these papers never 
alluded, save in bitter language, to the large audi- 
ences, the hundreds turned away unable to find 
standing-room, the character of the meetings, etc. 
These papers showed their colors. A Jesuit, 

■'See Appendix 11. 



298 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

metaphorically or literal^, sits at the elbows of 
these deluded editors. In making- known these 
facts I shall probably be criticized by them, but about 
them, I have only to say, what I once said of some 
donkeys that I saw when I was passing- over the 
hig-hest range of the Rocky Mountains : "Looking 
out from their corral, they viewed and reviewed 
us, but — we passed on to the summit of the 
mountain." The Daily Blade has occupied a more 
impartial ground. It gave some reports on both 
sides of the controversy. I delivered twelve dis- 
courses on "Romanism," and the Blade asked in 
advance for a synopsis of each discourse, but ex- 
tracts were printed from only six. Knowing- the 
influence of Rome in Toledo and in the country in 
g-eneral, I am constrained to say that the Blade did 
fairly well. It is certainly the only daily paper in 
the city of Toledo that dares to print in its columns 
anything against the dogmas and intrigues of Rome. 
Similar facts to these that I have stated about 
the papers in the foregoing cities, could be stated 
by many prominent lecturers upon the subject of 
"Romanism," such as Joseph Cook, Dr. Lorimer, 
Prof. Townsend, Evangelist .Leyden, Col. Sherman, 
Gen. Harris, Rev. Lansing, Rev. Fulton, Rev. 
White, Rev. Chiniquy, and scores of others. The 
daily press has, in many cases, refused to advertise 
their lectures, and, in nearly every instance, re- 
fused to report the success and the character of 
their meetings. 





The Bee and the Jug. 



300 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Roman Catholic Press Under the Ban. 

There is not a Roman Catholic journal published 
in this country that stands as the independent and 
free organ of the man or company editing- and pub- 
lishing it. All of them must take their orders 
from Rome. Allot them are subject to the cruel 
censorship of their holy (?) supervisors. 

At the Baltimore Catholic Congress, Mr. Wolff 
stated: "We repeat it with emphasis, Catholic 
newspapers, or their editors, or their writers, have 
no mission, no authority to decide, upon what is 
Roman doctrine. Their work is to declare that 
doctrine as they have received it from the Church, 
and to defend it against those who assail it, mis- 
represent it, and who would prevent and corrupt 
it, if they could. Obedience to ecclesiastical au- 
thority is the third characteristic laid down by the 
Council of Baltimore. The obligation is impera- 
tive, and its meaning unmistakable. . . . Cath- 
olics err most grievously when they allow them- 
selves to be deluded into supposing that the sub- 
jects to which we are referring are mere matters of 
opinion, and that they are at liberty to think, 
speak, write, or act with regard to them as they 
please. In so imagining, they expose themselves 
to the imminent danger of losing their faith and 
the spirit of true obedience to the authority and 
teaching of the Church, and thus, they not only 
imperil their own souls, but the souls also of all 
whom they influence. . . . With regard to the 
spirit of subordination and implicit obedience 
which must characterize every true Catholic news- 
paper, there is, we believe, a steady and constant 
improvement." 

The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, in 



How Rome Controls the Press. 301 

speaking - of Catholic editors who are bent on ex- 
ercising their own individual judgment, declares : 
"We declare that they themselves, and those 
who assist and encourage them in this most per- 
nicious abuse, are disturbers of good order, con- 
temners and enemies of the authority of the 
Church, and guilty of the gravest scandal ; and 
therefore, when their guilt has been sufficiently 
proved, should be punished with canonical cen- 
sures." 

In Joseph Keller's Life of Pope Leo XIII., there 
is an account of "over four hundred members of 
the Catholic press, delegates from thirteen hun- 
dred and thirty papers, and representing fifteen 
thousand writers," who were admitted to an au- 
dience with the Sovereign Pontiff, who "being 
seated on the throne, graciously received their ad- 
dress, which was replete with expressions of homage 
and implicit adherence to the apostolic chair." In 
turn his Holiness gave forth expressions of great 
joy " over their pledge of allegiance," recommended 
them "to be dignified in their language, to be 
united and faithful to the teachings and views of 
the Church," and condemned those who "take it 
upon themselves to decide and define, on their 
private judgment, controversies which concern the 
condition of the Apostolic See." 

In one of Pope Leo's letters (June 17, 1885) obe- 
dience is strictly enjoined as a duty "on journalists 
who, if they* were not animated with a spirit of 
docility and submission, so necessary to every 
Catholic, would help to extend and greatly aggra- 
vate the evils we deplore." 



302 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

I have in my possession a number of cases in 
which the censorship of the press has been exer- 
cised. Several examples will suffice. 

The Catholic Herald of New York Sat Down Upon. — 
For publishing" certain articles approving- the views 
of McGlynn, the following letter of censure was 
administered by Archbishop Corrigan to Mr. 
O'Laug-hlin, the proprietor of the Catholic 'Herald : 

452 Madison Ave., N. Y., April 13, 1887. 
To the Editor and Proprietor of the Catholic Herald : 

Gentlemen : By this note, which is entirely 
private and not to be published, I wish to call your 
attention to the fact that the Third Plenary Coun- 
cil of Baltimore, following the leadership of Pope Leo 
XIII., has pointed out the duties of the Catholic 
press, and denounced the abuses of which journals 
styling- themselves ''Catholic" are sometimes 
guilty. "That paper alone," says the Council 
(decree No. 288), "is to be regarded as Catholic 
that is prepared to submit in all things to ecclesi- 
astical authority." It warns all Catholic writers 
against presuming- to attack publicly the manner 
in which a Bishop rules his diocese. 

For some time past the utterances of the Catho'ic 
Herald have been shockingly scandalous. As this 
newspaper is published in this diocese, I hereby 
warn you that if you continue in this course of con- 
duct it will be at your peril. 

I am, gentlemen, yours truly, 
M. A. Corrigan, 

Archbishop of New York. 

Bishop Keane Censures the Church Progress, of St. 
Louis, Mo. — The Boston Daily Traveller of February 
10, 1892, gives an interesting account of a corres- 
pondence which took place between Bishop Keane, 




Sitting Down on the Press. 



304 America or Home: Christ or the Pope. 

of the Catholic University of Washing-ton, and the 
editor of the Church Progress. The Bishop censures 
the editor for criticizing- the Archbishop of New 
York for sanctioning- some Poug-hkeepsie arrange- 
ment. He then proceeds to censure him for criti- 
cizing- and discussing- the actions of the Archbishop 
of St. Paul for his course in the Faribault schools. 
He says he considers the course of the Church Prog- 
ress as inexcusable, and calls the attention of the 
editor to "the verdict, on matters of this sort, 
passed by the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, 
Nos. 230 and 231, which we here give. In No. 230, 
the Council expresses its shame and its sorrow that 
it should be compelled to remind the newspaper 
writers that they cannot be permitted either them- 
selves to attack, or to permit others in their 
columns to attack, ecclesiastics, and especially 
bishops, for the administration of the charg-es com- 
mitted to them ; and it quotes, at leng-th, strong- 
words to the same effect from our Holy Father, 
Pope Leo XIII., in apostolic letter of January 25, 
1882. In No. 231, it warns such writers, that by so 
doing- they render themselves obnoxious, not only 
to reproof, but even to ecclesiastical censures. Its 
concluding- words are : ' And with still greater 
reason, if they presume to criticize or condemn, in 
their newspapers or books, the action of a bishop 
in ruling- and administrating- his diocese, we declare 
both the writers themselves and xhose who are 
partakers in or encourag-ers of this most pernicious 
abuse to be disturbers of g-ood order, contemners 
and enemies of ecclesiastical authority, and guilty 



How Rome Controls the Press. 305 

of most grave scandal ; and that they therefore 
deserve, upon proof of their guilt, to be punished 
also by canonical censures. ' " 

Archbishop Kain Censures the Editor of the Western 
Watchman. — In March, 1894, the priests of the St. 
Louis archdiocese received the following" letter 
from their archbishop : 

The Western Watchman, and its reprint, the 
Sunday Watchman, a weekly paper edited by the 
Rev. D. S. Phelan, and published in this city, and 
professing" to be devoted to the interests of the 
Catholic Church in the West, is adjudged by us a 
most unfit paper to be introduced into our Catholic 
families. We regard it as subversive of ecclesias- 
tical discipline, and even dangerous to the faith of 
the Catholic people ; and, therefore, we feel bound 
to warn them against its baneful influence and to 
entreat them not to give it their support or en- 
couragement. Inasmuch as the reverend editor 
pays no heed to our admonitions — nay, even defiant- 
ly denies our authority in the premises — we deem it 
our solemn duty, as the guardian of the Ctiurch's in- 
terests, to thus publicly warn the faithful under 
our pastoral charge, against a newspaper which 
falsely claims to be an exponent of Catholic 
thought. You are ordered to read this letter at all 
the masses in your church on the first Sunday after 
its reception. Yours very truly in Christ, 

John J. Kain, 
Archbishop Coadjutor and Administrator. 
St. Louis, Mo., March 15, 1894. 

Sad, indeed, it is to record the fact, that the in- 
terdict of this despot was successful in its purpose. 
It forced Editor Phelan to make a most humiliat- 

20 



306 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

ing* apology, and to print a complete retraction 
which was dictated by the archbishop. 

Archbishop Elder Censures Owen Smith, Editor of the 
Catholic Telegraph. — We have not space to publish 
this correspondence in full, but will quote sufficient- 
ly to give you an idea of the tyranny of the Arch- 
bishop of Cincinnati : 

I call on you to publish in the Catholic Telegraph 
of this coming- week, in the usual place and type 
of editorial matter, a declaration of your regrets 
for each of the three articles mentioned above ; 
your retraction of all injurious assertions contained 
in them ; and your express promise, that hereafter 
you will not allow anything - to appear in the paper 
which may contravene, neither the admonition of 
the Sovereig-n Pontiff, nor the prohibition of the 
Council of Baltimore. It will be necessary to 
let me see the declaration and promise before it is 
published, that I may be satisfied of its' sufficiency. 
In case you should not think proper to comply with 
this requirement, it will become my duty to take 
what other measures may be needed to abate the 
scandal. Very respectfully, 

Your Servant in Christ, 
William Henry Elder, 

Archbishop Cincinnati. 

After several communications had passed be- 
tween the editor and the Archbishop, the editor 
finally subscribed himself to the following": 

" I cheerfully subscribe my name to the follow- 
ing- disavowal, so kindly dictated by his Grace : 
4 As publisher of the Catholic Telegraph, I hereby 
comply with the requirements of the above letter. 
I regret the appearance of the articles referred to. 
I retract (or if you choose, disavow) all of the in- 



How Rome Controls the Press. 307 

jurious assertions and inferences contained in them, 
and I make the required promise, which I will keep 
loyalh T and honorably as long- as I am connected 
with the paper. Owen Smith."' 

The sentence that gave particular offense to the 
Archbishop was the following" sarcastic reflection 
upon the clergv : "Almost all of the priests of the 
diocese are looking- for big parishes. There is no 
concealing the fact, there seems to be a perfect 
mania among- them." 

Bishop G-ilmour of Cleveland Censures the Editor of 
the Catholic Knight. — During- the Bishop's absence at 
the Baltimore Congress some indiscreet writer on 
the Knight penned a criticism on the musical regu- 
lations of a neighboring diocese, which brought 
forth a censure from Bishop Gilmour, of which the 
editor speaks as follows : 

"The Bishop censured us publicly in the press, 
and from several altars and pulpits, and privately, 
wherever he got a chance to introduce our name. 
He went so far as to labor with the merchants to 
have them refuse to trade with us. He tried to 
have Catholic publishers refuse to sell us their 
books; those whose 'ads' were in our columns 
were forced to withdraw their patronage, etc." 

The Cleveland Leader, commenting on this, says: 
"The editor of the Catholic Knight supported his 
Church with whatever ability he possessed, and 
the first time he manifested the slighest indepen- 
dence of mind, he finds her terrible engines of des- 
potism turned against him. He is feeling the 
weight of the iron rod he has helped to strengthen. 
He is forced to swallow a dose of the medicine he 
has aided to administer to others." 

Archbishop Fabre and the Canada Revue. — The 
Archbishop condemned the Revue, and instituted a 



308 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

boycott against the paper. The managers of the 
paper instituted suit against the Archbishop, but 
the judge dismissed the case upon the ground that 
" such a high dignitary of the Church as an arch- 
bishop, who is the spiritual adviser of many 
thousand souls, has a perfect right to warn persons 
under his spiritual charge against pernicious liter- 
ature, and also to condemn certain so-called Cath- 
olic publications which attack his Church. " The 
judge admitted that the plaintiff may have suf- 
fered damages, but that, as a professed Catholic, 
who published what were considered by his spirit- 
ual superior improper or unorthodox articles, he 
could have no cause for redress. Therefore the 
costs of the suit were levied against the plaintiff. 

The above instances are but a few of the many 
censures which archbishops have administered to 
editors. When a Catholic editor makes a com- 
mendable effort to expose and reform abuses in the 
Church, it is certain that he will be humiliated by 
the despot that rules over his diocese. The above 
letters reveal the spirit of the boycott, the excom- 
munication, and the Inquisition. It is the spirit 
that has been manifested by Rome from the dark 
ages to destroy freedom of speech, freedom of 
press, and freedom of worship. The letters of 
these archbishops are insults to the freedom and 
intelligence of our country. I denounce these eccle- 
siastical interferences and boycotts as public and 
national outrages. 

A Catholic editor dares not write what he thinks 
unless it be in harmony with the Papacy ; he is a 



How Rome Controls the Press. 309 

gagged man ; he is a subject and servant of the 
archbishop. His paper is in bondage ; it is not a 
defender of the liberty of our land ; it dares not 
uphold our Constitution. 

Protestant Periodicals Branded. 

We have already quoted criticisms, denunciations 
and anathemas against them from Popes, Councils, 
and authors, but to refresh your minds upon this 
subject I will give a statement made by their Mr. 
Wolff, at the Baltimore Congress, on the non- 
Catholic newspapers: "Catholics have no more 
right to read such papers, or permit their children 
to read them, than they have to associate with 
irreverent or bad people, or with those who sneer 
or scoff at the true faith." 

Again and again have the laity been warned 
against Protestant papers in general, but now and 
then a particular paper is made the object of Rome's 
vengeance. For example : 

Scribner's Monthly Spotted. — From the New York 
Catholic Review of November 2, 1889, we copy the 
following : 

" Catholics must notice with regret the occasion- 
ally unfortunate remarks and reflections on the 
faith that are creeping into Scribner's fine maga- 
zine. We look, of course, for partial blunders now 
and then. Protestant and agnostic editors cannot 
avoid them absolute^ ; and we allow for the spirit 
which has been abroad in the world for nearly four 
centuries, and which will show itself, even when 
precautions are taken. But we must protest 
against such views as are expressed in Andrew 



310 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Lang's poem in the November number, and we 
advise Catholics of spirit to leave that number 
unbought on the news-stands." 

CONCLUSION. 

The first Amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States declares : "Congress shall make no 
law abridging the freedom of speech or the press." 
We have learned from the decree of Rome and the 
censorship of the press that Romanism is an enemy 
to the freedom of the press and therefore to our 
Constitution. She claims the right to curse editors 
and to curse papers. She claims the right to com- 
mand the laity to withdraw subscriptions and 
advertisements from newspapers. She claims the 
right to dictate what shall be published in papers 
and what shall be read. Is not this presumptuous ? 
Is not this high-handed despotism? Is not this 
depriving the people of the right to be their own 
guardians and censors ? 

The Censorship of the Press is Depressing to 
the Intellect of Man. 

There is a dignity in being able to say, as did 
the Apostle Paul : " I am a free man." No Roman 
Catholic editor can say that. To be dictated to by 
an ecclesiastical superior is most degenerating toi 
the mental faculties. The editor who is compelled 
to look to a bishop to know what is right and 
wrong, and what is fit and unfit for his paper, is 
disqualified to be a member of our free republic. 
This censorship is as depressing to communities 



How Rome Controls the Press. 311 

and states as it is to individuals. Those who sur- 
render to it cannot be defenders of the liberty of the 
press. Those who obey these commands must be 
false to our Constitution and traitors to our Gov- 
ernment. 

Charles Eaton, speaking- on this subject, says : 
" If a considerable portion of our population shall 
surrender to this priestly dictation, it will have 
its injurious effect on all the other portion ; or, if 
the latter resist its influence, then the effect of a 
continuance of the dictation will be to stir up strife 
and conflict between the element which submits 
and that which manfully perseveres in upholding 
independence. There will necessarily be conflict 
in a- state where there are rival sovereignties, 
namely, that of the papal priesthood ruling- a large 
portion of the people on the one hand, and that of 
the self-governing- people on the other hand ruling 
themselves. And the conflict will wax in intensity 
till one or the other sovereignty is humbled in the 
dust." 

How Long must Americans Endure this Cen- 
sorship ? 

Have we no pity for those who are under the 
power of the Pope ? How long must our daily pa- 
pers be the slaves of this papal organization ? 
How long must we submit to this ecclesiastical au- 
thority that detests Protestantism ? How long shall 
we permit this suppression of news to continue? How 
much longer must we suffer this unjust discrimina- 
tion ? Are we to stand by in indifference and ex- 
cuse ourselves on the ground that this discipline 
enforced in the Catholic Church is none of our busi- 



312 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope 

ness ? Have we no duty to perform but to keep 
silent ? Shall we surrender the right that we pos- 
sess under the Stars and Stripes ? Shall we stand 
idly by and permit these dictators to defy our in- 
dependence, control and degrade our public press ? 
Shall we suffer woe to come upon us because we 
refuse to lift our voice and cast our votes against 
this unjust proscription ? Of what service is a free 
press, if it is not exercised ? Of what value is lib- 
erty, if it is not to be enjoyed? 

Shall we not, as free men, demand an unfettered 
press, unfettered by every organization that is op- 
posed to our civil liberties, good morals, good cit- 
izenship, and the enforcing of existing laws ? 
Shall we not demand a public press that will speak 
out, without fear or favor, upon the school ques- 
tion and the rights and liberties of American 
citizens? Shall we not demand a public press free 
from Roman Catholic editors, and reporters, and 
sympathizers ? Shall we not demand a press that 
will assist in educating our people and molding our 
opinions more in favor of home rule than Pope 
rule? Shall we not demand a public press that 
will support every movement that favors free 
speech, free press, free conscience, and a free wor- 
ship ? Shall we not demand a press that is op- 
posed to the dictations of foreign potentates and 
powers and the arbitrary denunciation, censorship, 
and government of Papal ecclesiastics ? 

''This controversy is upon us," says Bishop Cox, 
of the Episcopal Church, "and the sooner our peo- 
ple realize it the better, and the sooner the sword 



How Rome Controls the Press. 313 

is drawn the better ; the sooner the scabbard is 
flung - to the winds the better ; and the sooner the 
bridges are torn down, or burned, the better. There 
is no satisfactory compromise possible. This con- 
troversy cannot come to an end until the hand of 
this foreign ecclesiastical power no longer shall be 
felt, pressing with its withering touch upon our 
journalistic literature, and upon all the free insti- 
tutions of this country, which are as dear as life 
to every true American citizen." 

Oh, my patriotic friends, let us work and pray 
for a day when we shall have in reality and in 
truth a free press ; a day when the beams of truth 
radiating from this free press will dispel the gloom 
of mental night, chase from the world the super- 
stitions of the dark ages, unmask the tyrannies 
and gigantic wrongs of despots, wake humanity 
from its sleepy ignorance, break the bondage of 
papal reign, and bathe the world in a flood of light, 
until the triumph of truth shall be complete, and 
the "wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
made glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom 
like as a rose." 



ROME'S ATTACK ON OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



"I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say."— I. Cor. x. IS. 

I have a little book compiled by a Roman Catho- 
lic priest, entitled " Judges of Faith : Christian vs. 
Godless Schools." It is published by a Catholic 
publishing- house, and bears the endorsement of 
Cardinals Gibbons and Newman, and of many other 
authorities of the Church. It contains the rulings 
of more than twenty councils ; six or seven synods; 
two Roman pontiffs ; three hundred and eighty high 
church dignitaries, besides the views of prelates 
and priests of various ranks. To indicate its spirit 
we will give some of the choice epithets which it 
uses in denouncing our public school system : 
"Godless," "irreligious," "unchristian," "scan- 
dalous," "grossly immoral," "filthy," "vicious," 
"diabolical," " a detestable system," "positively 
dangerous," " a place where children imbibe the 
poisonous germs of infidelity and immorality," 
"your very blood would curdle at the scandal of 
which they are the scene." On page 9, the author 
tells us "Catholics will continue building schools 
on their own grounds " until our school buildings, 
"left empty by Catholics deserting them, shall be 

(314) 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 315 

lawfully acquired and occupied by denominational 
schools." This little book is of the highest Ro- 
man Catholic authority, and has a wide circula- 
tion ; it is addressed to Catholic parents, and unre- 
servedly commits the Church as the implacable 
enemy of the public school. 

We must mention some special attacks made 
upon our schools by some of their dignitaries and 
official organs. 

The Catholic Quarterly Review, of Boston, says : 
" We would much rather our children should grow 
% up in ignorance than be taught in a school that is 
not Catholic.'' 

Freeman's Romish Journal says : " Let the pub- 
lic school system go to where it came from — the 
devil. We want Christian schools, and the State 
cannot tell us what Christianity is." 

The Cincinnati Catholic Telegraph says : " It will 
be a glorious day for the Catholics of this country, 
when, under the blows of justice and morality, our 
school system will be shivered to pieces." 

Cardinal Manning says: "The common school 
system of the United States is the worst in the 
world." 

Father Walker declares, "Unless you suppress 
the public school system, as at present conducted, 
it will prove the damnation of this country." 

The Catholic Columbian, edited under the super- 
vision of the Bishop of Columbus, says : "Secular 
schools are unfit for Catholic children. Catholic 
parents cannot be allowed the sacraments who 



$16 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

choose to send their children to them when they 
could make use of the Catholic schools." 

Pope Pius IX., in the 45th proposition of the 
syllabus issued by him in 1864, declares: "That 
the Romish Church has a right to interfere in the 
discipline of the public schools, and in the choice 
of the teachers of these schools." And in proposi- 
tion 47th, that " public schools open to all children 
for the education of the young-, should be under 
the control of the Romish Church ; should not be 
subject to the civil power, nor made to conform to 
the opinions of the age." In proposition 48th, he 
says: "Catholics cannot approve of a system of. 
educating 1 youth which is unconnected with the 
Catholic faith and power of the Church." 

Edmund F. Dunne, LL.D., said at the Catholic 
Congress (Baltimore, 1889): "Why should the state 
ask for the child ? What can it do with it ? It 
cannot educate it. It has no power in that direc- 
tion. . . . That is beyond its charter, beyond 
its rights, beyond its power." Again he says: 
" Why should we not love this land ? Is it not our 
own ? Is it not under the care of Catholic saints ? 
With a Catholic people this land were surely 
Catholic." 

Bishop Gilmour, at the dedication of the Catho- 
lic University at Washington, said : "Catholics 
are willing to accept the public schools in America 
as they have done in Europe and elsewhere, on 
condition that an arrangement should be made that 
the child be taught religion.' 1 I ask, what religion? 

Pope Leo XIII., in a letter to one of his cardi- 



Home's Attack on our Public Schools. 317 

nals, dated March 25, 1879, says: " Nor can we here 
pass over in silence the opening- of anti-Catholic 
schools, with singular effrontery, under our very 
eyes, even at the gates of the Vatican, the vene- 
rated seat of the Roman Pontiffs. In contrast to 
this licentious liberty so amply conceded to heter- 
odox schools, in ways indirect indeed, but yet 
supremely efficacious, they endeavor to impede the 
increase and development of Catholic schools." 

I have in my possession a sufficient number of 
discourses, letters and decrees denouncing- our pub- 
lic schools, from Roman Catholic dignitaries, to 
make a good-sized volume. The hierarchy has 
thoroug-hly committed itself ag-anist the public 
school system, and as it is infallible it cannot re- 
treat ; to do so would be a refutation of its infal- 
libility. 

HOW ROME ATTACKS OUR PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS. 

1. By Abolishing the Bible. 

This was the first attack; this the entering wedge ; 
this she has accomplished in many towns and 
cities. "The Judges of Faith" objects to the 
Bible, because, it declares, " The very reading- of 
the Bible in the public schools is an attempt to 
pervert the hearts of Catholic children." Bishop 
Spotswood says, "I would rather one-half the 
people of this nation should be brought to the 
stake and burned than one man should read the 
Bible and form his judgment from its contents " 




The Priest and the Parish School. 



320 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope 

She claims to be the only Church of Christ on 
earth, and yet she dreads the Bible. God pity the 
Church that is afraid of the Bible. Our national 
independence was won by men who loved God's 
Book. Our free school system is the result of a 
Bible-loving* patriotism. Our forefathers planted 
homes, schoolhouses and churches, side by side. 
They came to this country as a persecuted people, 
who sought liberty of speech and of worship. 
Their children studied the school-books and read 
the Bible. If we must take the Bible out of our 
public schools, why not take it out of our halls of 
legislation, courts of justice, public as3^1ums, 
prisons, etc. If the Bible is, as Andrew Jackson 
said, "the rock of our liberties," I cannot see 
how the reading- of it would be injurious to our 
public schools. The Catholics say "it is secta- 
rian," and " Protestant," and " wicked to use it"; 
therefore, they want it prohibited. Then, why not 
prohibit the army, because the Quakers say it is 
wicked ? 

I am opposed to the union of church and state, 
yet the separation of the same does not imply a 
divorce of religion from state. Protestants oppose 
sectarian instruction in our public schools, yet they 
do not consider the reading* of God's Word as 
having* any tendency to make them sectarian. The 
reading* of the Bible will build up our morals, and 
yet it will not necessarily make the schools secta- 
rian. If the reading of the Bible will promote the 
morals of the children, the schools have a right 
to it, 



Eome's Attack on our Public Schools. 321 

Daniel Webster declares : "To preserve the gov- 
ernment we must also preserve the morals." If the 
reading" of the Bible in the public schools will pre- 
serve the morals, then it will hurt the state to dis- 
pense with it. One-half of the children in the 
United States are not in Sunday-schools ; if the 
Bible would be read in the public schools it would 
teach these children reverence for God, and rever- 
ence for law, and reverence for woman, all of which 
are "pillars of the republic." 

On this subject there should be the widest liberty, 
and the parents who object to this reading should 
be allowed to decide whether their children should 
or should not be present when the Bible is read. 
Let the Bible-reading occur at the beginning or the 
close of the session. 

But the Catholics have said that the Bible must 
go. They have protested against the reading of it 
in our public schools. They have used their polit- 
ical intrigues, and have, to a large extent, accom- 
plished their purpose. The fiery Revolutionary 
orator, Rufus Choate, once said, " The Bible shall 
not be taken from our public schools so long as 
there is a bit of Ply mouth Rock left for a gun-flint." 
Well, Plymouth Rock still stands, but the Bible 
is left out of many of our schools, and the Rufus 
Choate patriotism has been trampled under foot. 

The Bible is God's book. It belongs neither to 
the Roman Catholics exclusively, nor to the Prot- 
estants, but to both. It was made for all of God's 
people, and is no more sectarian than the air we 

breathe or the water we drink. Rome wants the 
21 



322 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Bible out of the public schools for the reason that 
it exposes her iniquities, and because, "You cannot 
find in it the fundamental dog-mas of Romanism. 
You cannot find in it the priestly or episcopal celib- 
acy. If the Roman Catholic people should read it, 
they would all see that their priests are not keep- 
ing - the laws of God in living" without recognized 
families. The doctrine of the Immaculate Concep- 
tion is not in the Bible. The worship of Mary is 
not in the Bible ; Purgatory is not in the Bible. 
The Mass is not in the Bible. The Assumption of 
the Virgin is not in the Bible. Indulgences are 
not in the Bible, nor Papal Infallibility, nor Ex- 
treme Unction, nor the Inquisition, nor Dens' The- 
ology, nor a great deal more that they depend upon. 
This is the real reason that they object to the Bible : 
because the open Bible in the hands of the people 
destroys the wicked pretensions of the hierarchy, 
and emancipates men from the yoke that neither 
they nor their fathers have ever been able to bear 
without being* pressed to the ground." (Rev. I. J. 
Lansing.) 

Because she keeps her mutilated Bible from the 
masses is no reason that we should keep a correct 
translation from them. This grand old Book has 
brought comfort to many a sorrowing heart, light 
to many a dark soul, and salvation to many a lost 
man. It is the foundation of all just government. 
It is the ground of our morals. It is, as Gen. Grant 
says, "the sheet-anchor of our liberties." Then 
let us treasure it as the apple of our eye. 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 323 

2. By Denouncing them as Godless. 

Priest Walker, in a discourse published in the 
New York Herald, in speaking- of the public schools, 
said : " They are Godless, and those who send their 
children to them cannot expect the mercy of God. 
You will live to see the day when it will be under- 
stood that the parents who permit this great sin 
will be refused the sacraments of the Church. 
What ! let them die without the rites of the Church? 
Yes, I say so. I would as soon administer the sac- 
rament to a dog- as to such a Catholic." "The 
Judges of Faith," on pag-e 125, g-ives a quotation 
from Archbishop Spaulding-, in which he declares 
that under our public school system our children 
are practically reared up more like enlig-htened 
pagans than as instructed Christians. Priest Frul 
says : •' These so-called public schools are infidel 
and sectarian. Catholic parents who send their 
children to them are guilty of a mortal sin." The 
Chicag-o Tablet, a prominent Catholic paper, says : 
"The common schools of this country are scenes 
of moral pollution, and sinks of hell." 

Rome's first attack on our public schools was on 
the ground that they were sectarian because the 
Bible was read in them ; and when the Bible is 
gone, she declares them to be Godless. It was first 
too much religion, and now it is not enough. As 
Mr. Rowland has well said, "Rome makes them 
Godless, and then objects to them because they are 
Godless." But is this not a very dangerous argu- 
ment for her to use ? Had she not better sweep her 



324 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

own door-steps? Had she not better pluck the 
beam out of her own eye ? Whoever brings immo- 
rality into our public schools should be exposed and 
punished. But I must deny the charge that our 
public schools are "Godless" and "grossly immo- 
ral." I must deny that our tens of thousands of 
public school teachers exert an immoral influence 
over their pupils. Rome says our public schools 
are Godless, then I presume she would call her 
schools Godly. Let us see. As to the relative 
moral influence on society of the public school sys- 
tem and the Roman Catholic Church and schools, 
the latter will find that she is the stench of a char- 
nel-house in comparison with the purity of the 
Rocky Mountain air. She attacks our public 
schools as Godless, yet three-fourths of our crim- 
inals are her children, or are brought up under her 
influence.* 

3. She Denounces them as Protestant. 

Says one of her writers : " Why should the State 
support Protestant schools and not Catholic ? " 
But this argument is false. Our public schools are 
not Protestant. Because a public school teacher is 
a Protestant does not imply that the school is Prot- 
estant, any more than to say because McKinley is 
a Methodist the State of Ohio is Methodist. 

Neither are we to infer, that because a majority 
of the pupils are Protestant, the school is therefore 
Protestant. If the denomination of the teacher 
was considered, then many of our public schools 

*See lecture on Romanism and Protestantism. 



ttoME's Attack on our Public Schools. 325 

would be most emphatically Roman Catholic ; but 
this Romanists are unanimous in denying, for the} T 
claim them to be both Protestant and Godless. The 
public school is not an institution to teach either 
Romanism or Protestantism, but to teach the com- 
mon branches, facts in science, history, literature, 
etc. 

4. By Objecting to their Text-Books. 

Again and again Rome has attacked our text- 
books. Again and again she has objected to the 
history taught in our public schools. She is afraid 
of history, and desires to conceal her black record. 
She does not want the rising generation to know- 
that she has murdered from fifty to one hundred 
million Protestants. She would like to cover up 
her bloody record in Spain, France, England, Mex- 
ico, and other countries. She would like to blot 
out of existence the terrible story of the Inquisi- 
tion. She has objected to every history that has 
given a correct, authentic and full account of the 
great Reformation. 

Jos. D. Fallon, one of the Roman Catholic text- 
book examiners of Boston, in speaking of Meyer's 
and Sheldon's Histories, declares: "Two books 
more inaccurate as historical records, more bigoted 
and objectionable in their language and spirit, have 
never been presented for examination to the present 
text-book committee." Judge Fallon's report on 
these histories, as well as on Sheldon's History, is 
merely Rome's charge upon histories because they 
contain facts, because they are not tortured into 



326 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope\ 

a justification of the ways of the alleged infallible 
Church. Rome parts faith with the very history 
she has made. She dare not face her own record. 
History exposes Rome. It explodes many of her 
dogmas, such as papal infallibility, temporal power, 
clerical celibacy, purgatory, indulgences, etc. In 
the light of history these are unsubstantiated. 

Father Malone, editor of the Colorado Catholic, 
made an attack upon Meyer's Mediaeval and Modern 
History. He objects to such historic facts as the 
following: "The Reformation was the means of 
freeing Northern Europe from the despotic domi- 
nation of Rome" ; " The Church set herself to the 
work of exterminating, with fire and sword, the 
entire people, men, women and children, of the 
Albigenses" ; " Indulgences are remissions of pun- 
ishment granted to the persons who prefer to pay 
a sum of money rather than pay the penances im- 
posed upon them by the Church." Mr. Meyer 
would not change his history ; he claims that "his- 
tory is history," and that it must not be doctored 
to suit any church or potentate. 

The old edition of Anderson stated many facts 
in history to which Rome objected, and the new 
edition of Anderson's history was altered to suit 
the Romanists. In the old edition we read, " King 
Henry, in order to gain the favor of the Church, 
caused severe laws to be passed against the Lol- 
lards, and one of them was condemned and burned 
at the stake. This was the first English subject 
that was put to death on account of his religious 
opinions"; in the new edition this sentence is 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 327 

omitted. On page 192 of the old edition we read, 
"The inquisition was established at Toulouse, and 
all who refused to conform with the tenets of the 
Church of Rome were mercilessly punished"; in 
the new book all of this is omitted. In the old edi- 
tion we are told "the whole number slaughtered 
in different parts of the kingdom amounted to 
thirty thousand " (the author is here speaking of 
the massacre of St.. Bartholomew); in the new edi- 
tion this sentence is omitted. I could make numer- 
ous quotations of this kind, showing that Ander- 
son had to make many alterations that his book 
might be approved by the Pope and his officials. 
Swinton's History was driven out of the Boston 
public schools because it told some unpleasant 
truths about Rome. Rome has compelled Ander- 
son to change and mutilate his history. She has 
protested against Meyer's, and excluded it where it 
was within her power. 

President McDowell, of the Colorado Methodist 
University, says: "It is evident that the attack is 
simply a part of the determination of Rome to have 
suppressed every fact in the history of the middle 
ages which reflects in any way upon the Roman 
Catholic Church," and he adds, "the Romish 
Church, from the Pope down, is opposed to our 
public schools unless she can control them." 

As Rome objects to our public school histories, it 
is opportune to ask what history she would teach. 
In her History of the United States, by M. Sadlier, 
more space is devoted to Romish priests than to 
Lincoln and Washington. His histories of the 



328 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

United States are more the history of Catholicism in 
the United States than the history of our rise, prog- 
ress and victories.* Rome's Bible History tells us 
** Protestantism resorts to force and violence." 
Her history of the middle ages is woefully per- 
verted. We look upon the great Reformers as the 
leading lights of those dark periods, but Rome 
denounces them as blasphemers. Dickens' Child's 
History of England was cast out of the public 
schools of Boston by Rome's text-book examiners ; 
so was Thompson's History of England ; and so 
were other books, for the simple reason that 
Rome objects to them. Rome objected to Webster's 
Dictionary until the publishers of that splendid 
dictionary were compelled to secure Callaghan, of 
the diocese of Little Rock, to revise and edit every- 
thing appertaining to the Church. In the light of 
these facts, do we want Rome to dictate to our 
school authorities how to teach our children ? 
Must we sit like belabored hounds and allow Rome 
to rule us, and to rule us by boycotts, poisoned 
cups, the midnight assassin, the incendiary's torch, 
the subsidized press, the sword and the bullet ? 

5. By Claiming it is Unjust to be Taxed 
Without Receiving Benefit. 

The Freeman's Journal says : "We do not want to- 
be taxed for Protestant or Godless schools." A 
priest at Berlin, Wis., boldly said, "The time is not 
far when the Romish Churches, by order of the 
Pope, will refuse to pay the school taxes, and 

* See article on Text-Books Used ia Parish Schools. 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 329 

sooner than pay the agent or collector will put a 
bullet through his breast. This order can come 
at any time from Rome ; and will come as suddenly 
as the pulling- of the trig-g-er of a gun, and of 
course this will be obeyed, as it comes from God 
Almighty." 

The same sentiment has been expressed by more 
than one Romanist. Even the Catholic World 
declares, " Education must be controlled by Cath- 
olic authorities, and under education the opinions 
of the individual and the utterances of the press 
are included, and many opinions are to be forbidden 
by the secular arm, under the authority of the 
Church, even to war and bloodshed." 

Rome takes her children from our public schools, 
forces them into the parochial schools, and then 
cries " unjust taxation." Why do not the Presby- 
terians, Congregationalists, Methodists and Dis- 
ciples, who sustain schools and colleges, make the 
same demand upon the public ? Why do not our 
wealthy bachelors, and wealthy married people 
who have no children, cry out "unjust taxation" ? 
As regards the matter of taxation, the state deals 
with her people neither as Catholics or Protestants, 
neither as married or single, but solely as citizens. 
The state does not ask whether the taxpayer is Jew 
or Gentile, a Catholic or a Protestant, married or 
single. It simply asks that he pay his taxes as an 
individual. The public school is considered by the 
state an institution that is necessary for her high- 
est interests, and therefore she taxes her people to 
support and maintain them. 



330 America or Home: Christ or the Pope. 

6. By Proposing a Division of the Public 
School Money. 

I was told by a member of the Roman Catholic 
Church that she belonged to a society whose prime 
object was to work for a division of the public 
school money. Rome is greedy, and there is no end 
to her schemes for getting- money. She has 
wormed out of the city of New York more than five 
million dollars to endow, support and sustain her 
institutions. Again and again they have proposed 
a division of the school fund. They claim that 
such a division between the Protestant and Catho- 
lic, pro rata, would only be equitable. But do you 
see to what this would lead ? Every denomination 
throughout the country would claim her share of 
the public money, and consequently there would be 
numerous sectarian schools springing up through- 
out the land, and many of them would be more 
anxious to maintain their creed and denomination 
than to educate the children. The various Protestant 
denominations know the folly of such a proposal 
and the inevitable results that would follow it, and 
therefore make no such demands. 

Our lamented Garfield said: "It would be danger- 
ous to our institutions to apply any portion of the 
revenue of the state to the support of sectarian 
schools," and General Grant stated in 1876 that 
" We must encourage free schools, and resolve that 
not one dollar appropriated to them shall be applied 
to the support of any sectarian school." 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 331 

7. By Substituting Parochial Schools.* 

Romanists claim that the public school system is 
more expensive than the . parochial system, and 
therefore, on the merit of superior economy, they 
propose the parochial school. In reply, I would say 
that it is not always economy to buy the cheapest 
article. It is very questionable as to whether it 
would be better to have a cheaper Catholic educa- 
tion than to receive a more expensive one in our 
public schools. The character of the education 
must be considered, as well as the expense. Were 
the parochial schools introduced, and all the other 
sects to start up their schools at public expense, 
the cost of so many rival schools would probably be 
far greater than at present. The matter of econo- 
my, therefore, should not be considered. 

Rome has her parochial schools. She compels 
her children to attend them ; in some places she 
refuses to confirm children that do not attend them; 
in other places she refuses the sacrament to the 
parents who do not support them. 

Do you know what Rome teaches in these paro- 
chial schools ? I was told the past week by a young" 
man who had attended Father Quigley's school that 
the principal study in that school is the catechism. 
They begin on the catechism, and unless they 
know it, other lessons are deferred until it is 
learned. They seem to live on the catechism. It 
is like a boarding-house in Virginia, where they 
have corn bread every meal. More than one Romish 

*See Appendix 1^. 



332 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

priest has stated that the catechism is sufficient for 
the common man to know. 

The effects of the parochial school are sufficient 
to condemn them in the eyes of every intelligent 
man. Children trained in the parochial schools are 
more than three times as likely to get into jail than 
those who are reared in our public schools.* 

In the parochial schools the children are taught 
the superiority of the Pope's flag over the stars 
and stripes ; the superiority of the Pope to the 
President of our United States ; they are taught 
the catechism more than any other book ; they are 
taught to hate Protestantism. 

Mr. Wheeler has made a statement of the illiter- 
acy of eight Roman Catholic and eight Protestant 
countries, in which it is shown that the illiteracy 
in the former is fourteen times greater than the 
latter. The statement is compiled from the data 
furnished by the reports of the United States Com- 
missioners of Education, the census of 1880, and 
the Statesman's Year Book of 1887 :f 

"Contrast eight Roman Catholic countries, viz., 
Venezuela, Austria, Hungary, France, Brazil, 
Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy, with eight 
Protestant countries, viz. : Victoria, Sweden, Swit- 
zerland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Great 
Britain and the United States. The two groups 
each cover an area of over 4,000,000 square miles ; 
they each contain about 150,000,000 people. In the 
one group the Romanists show an average percentage 
of 91.3 of the inhabitants. In the other group the 

*See article on Romanism and Protestantism. 
tSee Appendix 10— Illiteracy. 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 333 

Protestants show an average of 79.75 of the inhabit- 
ants. Each religion is respective^ dominant in 
its own group. But right here the similarity 
ceases. Night and day are not more unlike. While 
the average percentage of illiteracy in the Roman 
Catholic group is 59.61 or over half the population, 
the average percentage of illiteracy in the Protes- 
tant group is only 4.156 ; in other words illiteracy 
in the Roman Catholic group is 14.343 times great- 
er than in the Protestant." 

It is no wonder that Victor Hugo said : "Italy, 
that taught man how to read, knows not how to 
read." Father Chiniquy says: "The purpose of 
Rome is to educate a man just enough so that 
he will kiss the toe of the Pope." The parochial 
schools have kept the masses in ignorance. I chal- 
lenge the Catholic priesthood to point to one Cath- 
olic nation where the children have been taught to 
read and write, and to point to one Catholic nation 
that stands in the lead in education. The brains 
of the world, the great books of the world, the 
great inventions of the world and the great educa- 
tional institutions of the world are found in Prot- 
estant countries. The world has learned that an 
education, to be broad and universal, must be taken 
out of the hands of the Romish priests and nuns. 
The illiteracy of Roman Catholic countries is the 
best condemnation of parochial schools. History 
declares them to be failures, utter failures. Then 
let Rome reform her own schools and bring them 
up to the standard of our public schools before she 
asks to be heard. 



334 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

8. By Supplying the Public Schools with Cath- 
olic Teachers. 

Pope Pius IX. says: "The Romish Church has 
a right to interfere in the discipline of the public 
schools, and in the arrangement of the study, and 
in the choice of teachers for these schools." All 
of her children do not attend her parochial schools, 
and therefore she uses her political intrigue and 
power to fill the public schools with Roman Catho- 
lic teachers, that they may, as far as possible, Ro- 
manize the American youth. But if our public 
schools are, as Rome says, too Godless and grossly 
immoral for Catholic children to attend, then are 
they not too Godless and grossly immoral for Cath- 
olic teachers to teach in them ? Through her po- 
litical power she elects Catholic school boards, and 
they, playing into the hands of the Catholic 
Church, appoint Catholic teachers. 

Dr. O. C. Brown, of Dubuque, Iowa, addressed 
an interesting letter to the Catholic Bishop of that 
Diocese, concerning what the Romanists are doing 
in Protestant Iowa. These facts Dr. Brown verifies 
by his personal experience. In this letter he states: 

"At Key West, three miles southwest of here, 
the public school is in the same yard with the 
Catholic Church. It is taught by nuns, who teach 
the Roman Catechism as a regular study. At the 
time of my visit the children were away riding 
with the sisters on a school-day and in school- 
hours. At New Mallory, Prairie Creek, and the 
district next beyond the last (Miss Rooney, Miss 
McCarthy and Miss Callaghan respectively being 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 335 

the teachers), the catechism of the Roman Church 
is regularly taught as one of the studies. I my- 
self have seen it in two of these schools and heard 
a recitation in regular school-hours. At Bernard, 
there is a similar state of things. 

"At Wilton, near Ashbury, three miles north- 
west, some years ago a priest of this diocese ordered 
and secured, through the Catholic members of the 
school board, the removal of the school from the 
public building to one which he designated, where 
he regularly heard recitations in the catechism. 
Later the same priest appeared at a public exhibi- 
tion, produced a heavy whip which he had bought, 
and ordered the whipping of fourteen children in 
a house crowded with visitors. While the whip- 
ping was in progress he stood over the teacher 
ordering her to 'lay it on.' And yet there are 
those who tell us that such high-handed and out- 
rageous proceedings of priests within your diocese 
are no worse than the quiet reading of a chapter 
from the Sermon on the Mount by other teachers. 
At ' Holy Cross ' the public school was sold, and 
the only school there now is one built on church 
property and managed by Catholic authorities, but 
paid for by public money. All of these facts and 
others like them exist, as you know, in this county. 
At Spruce Creek, Spring Brook, La Motte, Otter 
Creek, Butler, District No. 3, and many other 
places in Jackson County, a similar state of things 
exists. All of these public schools have been per- 
verted to the use of Romanism, so far, at least, as 
to have the catechism taught in them, in violation 
of the Constitution of Iowa and of the United 
States. At Tette de Morte a still greater abuse 
exists, for there the public school in District No. 2, 
Jackson County, is in a nunnery." 

We can submit these facts to the readei without 



336 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

comment. They are concerning" the public schools 
supported by the state. Similar facts can be 
g-athered in every State in the Union. If the 
Baptist or Methodist Church had done these thing's, 
there is not a political org"an in the nation that 
would not ring- with indig-nation. Why are they 
silent now ? 

In the year of our Lord 1893, twenty Protestant 
teachers were ejected from the Troy schools, and 
Catholic teachers put in. In 1890 there were 1855 
public school teachers in Chicag-o, and 1144 of these 
were Catholics ; Rev. J. W. Allen, of Chicag-o, 
writes Dec. 15, 1894, that 75 per cent, of the public 
school teachers of Chicago are Catholics. 

But, you say, why not employ Catholic teachers 
in our public schools as well as those of Protestant 
denominations ? I would say most emphatically 
because the Roman Catholic Church is a political 
party and the Protestant denominations are not. 
No Catholic school-teacher shall be absolved unless 
she works in the interest of Rome. Are we not 
justified in objecting- to teachers in our public 
schools who are avowed enemies to the schools and 
who are in favor of parochial schools and of state 
money to support them ? This is a most important 
question. Our school board should be most care- 
fully selected. Before voting-, every voter should 
ask as to the religious convictions of Murphy, or 
Flanagan, or O'Flaherty, or Mullig-an, or O'Brien, 
or Pat Daug-herty. When Mr. Edward Everett 
Hale was asked if he would not serve as a member 
of the school board of Boston, he said, "Gentle- 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 337 

men, I am incapable of being- a member of the 
school board ; I never spent but two weeks in Ire- 
land in my life." Well, my fellow citizens, true 
patriotism and self-preservation demand that you 
keep every enemy of our public schools out of the 
school board as a member thereof, and out of the 
school as a teacher. 

9. By Conciliatory Methods. 

Bishop Ireland recently declared that he was a 
friend of the state schools, and in favor of the state 
making* laws looking to compulsory education. 
This will do as a bright side to present to a Prot- 
estant public, but the anaconda always covers his 
victim with slime before he swallows him. We are 
to accept with a great deal of allowance any such 
statement. Bishop Ireland said at the Catholic 
Centenary Celebration, ** The great work which 
the Catholics of the United States are called to do 
in the coming century is to make America Catho- 
lic." The little book called " Judg-es of Faith : 
Christian against Godless Schools, " contains the 
endorsement of the highest authorities of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church, all of which are unreservedly 
opposed to the public schools. The Pope has sent 
Satolli to the United States to assist in settling- the 
school question, and other questions, in favor of the 
Pope. I for one have never been the least inclined 
to accept him as an ambassador, because he came 
from a land where the standard of education is so 
low, that it is out of sig-ht, when compared to the 

standard of education in the United States. I have 
22 



338 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

never taken much to their conciliatory methods. 
Our public schools are cherished institutions, and 
essential to the preservation of our liberties. And, 
when Roman Catholics publicly declare and ac- 
knowledge that they are Godless and infidel, they 
publicly declare and acknowledge that they are 
enemies of our free institutions, and are in open 
conflict with Protestantism and Patriotism. 

10. By Claiming Every Parent has a Right to 
Educate his own Child. 

Catholics have much to say on this question. 
They cry loud and long- upon the subject of Catholic 
conscience. Let us for a moment examine into the 
rights of the child, the rights of the parent, and 
the rights of the state. The child has the right to 
existence, the right to maintenance, the right to a 
fair education, the right to state protection, and 
the right to worship according to the dictates of 
his conscience. The parent has a right to exercise 
authority over the child so long as he does not con- 
flict with the rights of the child or the rights of 
the state. The parents has no right to teach the 
.child or allow him to be taught immorality or 
treason; he has no right to do anything that will 
lead the child to trample on the rights of others, or 
permit him to be taught by others any dogmas that 
will unfit him for good citizenship. 

Mr. Owen, in the "School Plot Unmasked," has 
given us a list of some of the rights of the state. 
The state has the right to exist and to perpetuate 
its existence. What is necessary to its existence it 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 339 

has a right to require. The state has the right to 
establish universal education as the necessary con- 
dition of universal intelligence and social morality. 
The state has the right to establish a universal 
system of public schools as the necessary condition 
of universal education. The state has the right to 
establish universal use of the means of education 
by the instruction of all the children in the school. 

All of these rights are involved in the right of 
the state to exist as a society of individuals. A 
knowledge of these rights should be taught in 
schools. These rights are not taught in the paro- 
chial schools ; on the contrary, the parochial schools 
keep this knowledge from their children, and rob 
them of the superior advantages offered by our 
system of education. 

Germany maintains one great principle which is 
beautifully expressed by one of her authors : "Na- 
tional education is a national duty ; national edu- 
cation is a sacred duty ; to leave national education 
to chance, church or charity, is a national sin." 

Daniel Webster said: "The power over educa- 
tion belongs essentially to the Government. It is 
one of those powers, the exercise of which is indis- 
pensable to the preservation of society, to its integ- 
rity, and to its healthy action. It is the duty of 
self-preservation according to the mode of its exist- 
ence for the sake of common good." 

The Romanist lays claim to violation of con- 
science by our public school system, and if this 
claim is honest and just, it should receive candid 
attention ; but if this claim is built upon the sand, 



340 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

it must fall. Conscience is under law and must be 
reasonable. The conscience of Protestants and the 
Conscience of the nation must be considered. Is 
not the Catholic conscience upon the school ques- 
tion considerably perverted ? Is it not a most un- 
reasonable conscience that opposes one of the insti- 
tutions that is necessary for the preservation of the 
hig-hest interests of the state ? Is not the Catholic 
conscience the conscience of the Pope, a foreig-n 
pontiff ? We have shown that the public school is 
a necessity and the Catholic authorities are opposed 
to public schools; therefore, the Catholic conscience 
is unjust and unreasonable, and does not deserve 
consideration. The Catholic conscience demands 
that their own religion must be taught in the pub- 
lic schools, or the children must attend the paro- 
chial schools. Then the question must be, to which 
does the school belong-, to the church or the state? 
This is one of the real issues. 

This conflict between the parochial and the pub- 
lic schools is far deeper than many Protestants are 
aware of . As Josiah Strong has well said: "It 
involves the whole subject of education, its aims 
and methods." 

The object of the public school is to make good 
citizens. The object of the parochial school is to 
make g"ood Catholics. The public school seeks to 
give both knowledge and discipline — not only truth, 
but the power to find truth. The parochial school 
aims to lead, rather than to train the mind ; to pro- 
duce a spirit of submission, rather than one of 
independence. The one system is calculated to 



Eome's Attack on our Public Schools. 341 

arouse, the other to repress the spirit of inquiry. 
The one aims at self-control, the other at control 
by superiors. The one seeks to secure intelligent 
obedience to rightful authorities ; the other, un- 
questioning - obedience to arbitrary authority. 

Let me give you some of the real reasons why 
Rome attacks our public schools. 

1. She Fears Intelligence. 

She is afraid of coming in contact with Protes- 
tant intellect. She prefers her youth to receive 
separate and priestly teaching. The editor of the 
Irish World claims that there are ten million persons 
in the United States, who as descendants of Ro- 
man Catholics ought to be members of the Holy 
Mother Church, but are lost to it, and this loss he 
attributes to the use of the public school. The 
Catholic Review, 1889, said: "The parochial school 
is necessary because Catholic children cannot be 
brought up Catholics and attend the public schools. 
At the present moment the Catholic Church in 
America depends more on the faith of the Catholic 
immigrant than on the faith of those who have re- 
ceived their education in the public schools. We 
see, therefore, no way of making them Catholics, 
than by the parochial school. " 

It is evident from their own writers that Roman- 
ism goes down before the electric torch of our pub- 
lic schools. Our public school makes intelligent 
citizens ; it makes American citizens ; it exposes the 
superstitions, dogmas and practices of past ages. 
Where these things are taught, Romanism cannot 



342 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

stand. Ignorance is the necessary condition of 
Romanism. The Catholic World declared: "The 
best ordered and administered state is that in 
which few are well educated and lead, the many 
who are trained to obedience are willing" to be di- 
rected, content to follow, and do not aspire to 
be leaders. We believe the peasantry in Catholic 
countries, two centuries ago, were better educated, 
although for the most part unable to read or write, 
than are the great body of American people of 
to-day." 

A Protestant once asked a fellow laborer, who 
was a Romanist, the question, "What do you be- 
lieve, Patrick ?" To which Patrick replied, "Shure, 
and I believe what the Church believes." "Well," 
asked the Protestant, "what does the Church be- 
lieve ?" " Shure, man," said Pat, "the Church be- 
lieves what I believe !" "Well, Pat, what do you 
both believe?" "By my soul, sir, we both believe 
alike." "And," says Mr. Owen, "implicit faith 
and implicit ignorance are her condition." This is 
true, and this ignorance is a power when mar- 
shaled b} 7 despotic priests, who stand before the 
ignorant masses with supposed authority to save 
or damn the poor dupes who are pledged to obey 
the voice of the Church. Rome's power rests on 
keeping her people illiterate, on keeping therm 
studying the catechism, believing in relics, holy 
bones, holy saints, holy water, hail Marys and in- 
numerable masses and indulgences. 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 343 

2. Rome wants to Control our Public Schools. 

One of their bishops, in writing- to the professors 
of a certain college, declared : "The Church holds 
herself to be invested wi'th the absolute rig-ht to 
teach mankind. She holds herself to be the de- 
pository of truth." The Tablet says : "The organ- 
ization of the schools, their internal arrangement 
and management, the choice and reg-ulation of 
studies, the selection of, appointment and dismissal 
of teachers, belong- exclusively to the spiritual 
authority." Bishop Ireland said to some graduat- 
ing- students at Rome, "We can have the United 
States in ten years, and I want to give you three 
points for your consideration." The public schools 
was one point named. 

Judg-e Dunne, at the Baltimore Congress (1889), 
said: " The Catholic seal is set on this land for- 
ever. . . . Why should the state ask for the 
child ? What can it do with it ? It cannot ed- 
ucate it. It has no power in that direction. 

. . That is beyond its charter, beyond its 
rig-hts, beyond its power." Ag-ain he says : 
"Why should we not love this land? Is it not 
our own ? Is it not under the care of Catholic 
saints ? With a Catholic people this land were 
surely Catholic." Bishop Gilmour, at the dedica- 
tion of the Catholic University at Washing-ton, 
said: "Catholics are willing- to accept the public 
schools in America as they have done in Europe, 
and elsewhere, on condition that an arrangement 
should be made that the child be taug-ht relig-ion." 



344 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

I would ask : What religion ? Yea ! Verily Rome 
is pushing - hard to make Romanism supreme in the 
nation, to make religion a state affair, to control 
the press, to undermine our public schools, and to 
overthrow our liberties. Had she the power she 
would close our public schools, and compel our 
children to receive her instructions or do without 
instruction altogether. And this, too, in the face 
of the fact, that wherever she has been supreme, 
ignorance, poverty, degradation, superstition and 
crime have prevailed. 

3. Our Public School System is one of the 
Foundation-Stones of our Liberties. 

The hope of our nation lies in the intelligence 
and morality of the people. Franklin said : "We 
must educate, or we must perish by our own pros- 
perity." A large per cent, of our crime is commit- 
ted by the ignorant classes. Ignorance endangers 
our public institutions, and therefore the United 
States must suppress ignorance by educating the 
rising generation. As a result of this, she pays one 
hundred and thirty-three million dollars annually 
for the instruction of thirteen million of her chil- 
dren. Our great statesmen have said : "Our public 
schools are the bulwark of our liberties, and we 
must consider as an enemy every power or person 
that would oppose them." 

4. Because they Americanize Immigrants. 

This is peculiarly a function of the common 
school. It is highly important that we Ameri- 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 345 

canize the children of immigrants. The public 
school has mighty assimilating" power ; by means 
of it the children of different races are made Ameri- 
cans. The sturdy Scotchman, the comical Irish- 
man, the substantial Englishman, the honest Ger- 
man, and the polite Frenchman, have widely dif- 
ferent characters and ideas ; these are blended into 
one composite whole by the public school. The 
public school is supremely important in changing* 
the heterogeneous character of our population into 
a homogeneous one. Mr. Shaw in the " Roman 
Conflict," says: " Rome assails the public school 
because she has lost already four million of people 
through its agency ; she cannot control the polit- 
ical vote of her people educated there ; she cannot 
compete with American education in common 
schools ; she wants a separate education for her 
own people, as she knows they cannot stand the 
light of the other system ; as history, science, and 
mathematics are against her, she wishes to elimi- 
nate whatever is opposed to her." 

CONCLUSION. 

Rome has Tried Her Hand in Educating and 

has Failed. 

For twelve centuries she was the teacher of the 
world. All the nations of Europe bowed to her 
authority. They drank of her corruption. Those 
were dark ages. The dawn of the Reformation 
marks the revival of science, literature, and learning. 
The profound minds were the great reformers of 



346 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

the time. Wycliffe, Huss, Jerome, Luther, Cal- 
vin, Melancthoti, Knox, Cranmer, Latimer and Rid- 
ley were the great scholars as well as the great re- 
formers of their times. The Roman Catholic edu- 
cation has everywhere had a tendency to repress 
rather than quicken the thought and life of the 
pupil, and to unfit rather than prepare him for the 
discharg-e of the great duties of life. Those who 
have been educated in their schools drop behind in 
the sharp contests. Her people do not read many 
books, nor subscribe to many papers. Josiah 
Strong says : " Her real attitude towards the edu- 
cation of the masses may be inferred from her 
course in those countries where she has or has had 
undisputed sway, and there she has kept the people 
in ignorance." 

The Encyclopedia of Education gives a table of 
the statistics of thirty countries ; of these five are 
starred as nearly free from illiteracy, and all of 
them are Protestant. The Roman Catholic coun- 
tries show as great illiteracy as India and China. 
Seventy-three per cent, of the inhabitants of Italy, 
and ninety-three per cent, of the inhabitants of 
Mexico, are illiterate. 

The progress of intelligence in Europe has been 
made in spite of Romanism. It scourged Prinnelli, 
for saying- that the stars would not fall. It tor- 
tured Campanella, for saying- that the number of 
worlds was infinite. It persecuted Harvey, for 
proving the circulation of the blood. It impris- 
oned Galileo for his discoveries. It anathematized 
Pascal in the name of religion, and Montaig-ne in 



Home's Attack on our Public Schools. 34? 

the name of morality. It burned millions at the 
stake because they would not subscribe to its creed. 
It has tried every way to check the march of intel- 
lect. It has rejected nearly everything" that has 
been invented by genius and achieved by knowl- 
edge. Some of the grandest productions of litera- 
ture it has denounced and endeavored to drive out 
of both private and public libraries. It has gone 
so far as to excommunicate those who would dare 
to publish, possess or read such books. 

Romanism and Protestantism are Widely 
Different. 

Marvin Owen says: "A tree is known by its 
fruits." We must judge any system of religion by 
the grade of work it turns out. Stand such men 
as Sumner, Seward, Lincoln, Colfax, Grant and 
Garfield by the side of the Kelleys, Morrisseys, Sul- 
livans, etc., and which class of men stand highest 
in the minds of cultured people ? 

The public schools teach supreme allegiance to 
the United States, the parochial schools teach 
supreme allegiance to the Pope ; the free schools 
float the stars and stripes, the papal schools the 
Romish emblem ; the free schools teach charity for 
all ; the Romish schools teach intense hatred of 
the Protestants, that they are heretics, that mar- 
riage among them is a farce, and that all outside 
of the Romish Church are to be damned. 

The theory of American education is to stimulate 
thought ; to encourage research ; to teach a man all 
he can learn, and to make him self-reliant and 



348 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope*. 

independent. The theory of parochical education 
is to stifle thoug-ht, to suppress research, to limit the 
education, and to make man dependent upon the 
Pope. 

Our public schools turn out young- men and 
women with hig-h and holy ambitions, and with 
a mig-hty stimulus to exertion. The parochial 
schools turn out men and women with smothered 
ambitions, and with no incentive to labor. The 
public school makes such republics as the United 
States of America. The parochial school makes 
such countries as Italy and Mexico. 

In 1870, in the Protestant countries of Europe, 
one in every ten was in school, while in the Roman 
Catholic countries one in every one hundred and 
twenty-four was in school. In the same year, in 
the six leading- Protestant countries of Europe, 
there was one newspaper or mag-azine published 
to every three hundred and fifteen inhabitants ; 
while in six Roman Catholic countries there was 
but one to every twenty-seven hundred and fifteen 
inhabitants. It is a fact, that wherever you insti- 
tute an honest comparison between Romanism and 
Protestantism in respect to schools, school systems, 
g-eneral intelligence, g-eneral morality, and g-eneral 
prosperity, you have a result most unfavorable to 
the Roman Catholic Church and schools. We are 
therefore constrained to say : 

Protectants, Stand Firm. 

1. Stand for the Bible. This grand old Book came 
from God, and came to this country with our Pil- 



Rome's Attack on our Public Schools. 349 

grim Fathers. The first school planted in the 
colonies had the Bible in it, and it was never taken 
out until Rome lifted her finger ag-ainst it and said, 
"It must be taken from our public schools." It is 
a book of wisdom. It blesses everybody that reads 
it in the spirit of sincerity and truth. 

1. Stand by our Public Schools. You must stand 
opposed to electing- school boards and the employ- 
ment of teachers who are the avowed enemies of 
the public schools. You must stand opposed to 
g-iving public moneys to those who seek the destruc- 
tion of the public schools. You must stand opposed 
to thisdespotic and political religion in your homes, 
in your society, in your business, in } r our church, 
and in your politics. I appeal to you from the 
standpoint of self-preservation, to stand by the 
public schools. 

Let the free schools be undermined, and you re- 
move one of the great corner-stones of our republic. 
You must have these schools to preserve your lib- 
erties, to educate your children, and save them from 
the power of Rome. These schools you have re- 
ceived as one of the fairest heritages from your 
forefathers, and you must preserve them as well as 
the spirit that instituted them. Oh, my fellow 
Protestants, has the spirit of '76 died out ? 
Have you lost your patriotic blood ? Have you 
ceased to cherish the liberties that cost your 
forefathers such a great price ? Have you forg*ot- 
ten their struggles, their persecutions, their victo- 
ries ? Stand for the public schools. Let the flag- 
of the free heart's hope and home float over them. 



350 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Let no treasonable flag" be raised on top of the little 
red schoolhouse. The stars and stripes must not 
be insulted. Stand by every Roman Catholic that 
turns his back against the dog-mas and treason of 
Rome and swears allegiance to our country, and 
unreserved support to our schools and liberties. 
Oh, men, brothers, patriots, Protestants, stand by 
the free schools which your fathers bought with 
their blood. I charge you, stand by them, by your 
votes, your prayers, your papers, and your pulpits. 
Raise high the standard of the public schools. Con- 
tinue to maintain a system superior to the parochial 
school system. 

You Must Stand Unflinchingly. 

You have yielded to Rome's demands five of our 
best histories and the Bible. Are you to keep on 
yielding ? Rome will not stop demanding until she 
has complete control. You must call a halt, turn 
over a new leaf, regain your lost ground, and main- 
tain your free schools, your free Bible, your free 
press and your free church. 



SATOLLI AND HIS MISSION TO AMERICA. 



The present Pope was once a professor in a Jes- 
uit college; Satolli was one of his pupils. A 
strong- attachment was formed between the profes- 
sor and the student. Satolli afterwards occupied 
the chair of professor and won success in difficult 
research. He has been under the eye of the Pope 
during his whole life. 

His Personal Appearance. 

John Talbot Smith says : "Satolli is physically 
a plain, unpretentious individual, very Italian in 
appearance, and without any peculiarities that 
might indicate the prince of the Church or the 
diplomat. His eyes are small ; his mouth is wide 
to the point of ugliness ; his skin is dark and sal- 
low ; his figure is lean, and possesses the Italian 
suppleness and grace." 

His Official Position. 

Satolli holds as high an office and as great a rank 
as can be bestowed by the Roman Catholic Church, 
with the exception of the papal chair. He is the 
official head of the Catholic Church in America. 
He is the Pope's representative in America. He 
has established his headquarters in Washington, 

(351) 



352 America or Home: Christ or the Pope. 

and has there raised the papal flag-. He considers 
it a great privileg-e to be a friend of the reig-ning- 
Pontiff, and on the other hand, the Pope considers 
him as obedient, trustworthy, and as representing- 
Romanism exceedingly well in America. As the 
Pope's delegate to America he enjoys a salary of 
five thousand dollars a year, wears a royal robe, 
and speaks with authority. 

His Welcome to this Country. 

He came over in October, 1892, and on his arrival 
was greeted by a Government vessel as a represen- 
tative of the Pope. Harrison and Cleveland were 
candidates for the Presidency. The chairman of 
the Central Republican Committee was a Roman 
Catholic, and the chairman of the Central Demo- 
cratic Committee was also a Roman Catholic ; the 
affairs of politics seemed to be between Satan and 
the Devil. Thing's were in a bad way. The Ro- 
man Catholics held the balance of power, and both 
parties were bidding- for votes. The papers her- 
alded the coming* of Satolli. Since his arrival he 
cannot pack his gripsack, or say a dozen words in 
public, but a half column is devoted to him in the 
Associated Press dispatches. 

To illustrate this statement we will give one 
among- many instances— his visit to Waterbury, 
Conn. The report of his visit appeared in our 
daily press, and I shall present it as told by the 
New York Christian Advocate, a paper that stands 
firmly upon American principles : 

"Monsig-nor Satolli, dressed in the robes of an 




Mgr. Satolli. 
Photographed by Jas. I/. Breese from a portrait by A. Muller Ury. 
Copyright, 1894, by Jas. L. Breese. 

Permission granted Feb. 20, 1895. 



354 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope 

archbishop, with a gold cross hanging - upon his 
breast from a chain about his neck, stood many 
hours, while the people filed by him at the rate of 
thirty-three a minute. He received everyone with 
a smile of welcome, and to all he extended the ring 
worn upon the third finger as the insignia of epis- 
copal authority. (The kissing of this ring signifies 
the union of Jesus Christ with the Church, and of 
the Church with the people.) 

44 After music, the members of the common coun- 
cil grouped themselves" about the archbishop, and 
the mayor addressed the dignitary in a speech 
offering to him, in behalf of the corporation, its 
officials and people, a hearty welcome, and then 
said : ' I can assure you that we more than appre- 
ciate the high honor conferred on the city and its 
citizens by your kindly visit, affording the oppor- 
tunity of meeting and greeting the representative 
in America of his Holiness, Pope Leo XIII., and of 
showing our respect and admiration for one so dis- 
tinguished in position and so famed for the learn- 
ing and wisdom which have marked the administra- 
tion of the duties of his high and important 
office.'" 

During his sojourn in Waterbury, he visited the 
parochial schools and blessed the children, and also 
the high school, and after addressing the teachers 
and board of education in complimentary terms, he 
commended the parochial schools in the following 
language : 

14 The state does all within its power and beyond 
doubt wishes to encourage all institutions that are 
builded upon the American spirit and obedient to 
the scholastic law, whose object is to protect and 
assure moral and religious education — and such 
institutions are Catholic schools. In the domain 



Satolli and his Mission to America. 355 

of instruction and education, church and state go 
hand in hand, working- tog-ether for the purpose of 
forming- citizens worthy of this country, and sincere 
believers of the Catholic religion." 

Says the editor of the Advocate : 

" That the mayor of a city speaking" for its whole 
population, should presume to utter such a speech, 
surprised us when we looked into the matter. The 
present mayor of Waterbury is an Irish Roman Cath- 
olic, the board of aldermen and common council that 
g-athered about the monsig-nor are about half of 
them Roman Catholics, and could easily be so 
wholly, except for the division into wards that 
exists in Waterbury. The non-Roman Catholic 
members seem to be so dominated that, with one 
or two exceptions, they dare not raise an objection 
to being- led in the triumphal train of a Roman 
Catholic pag-eant. The city clerk is a Roman Cath- 
olic ; the treasurer, auditor, sheriff, prosecuting- 
attorney, the street inspector, the chief of police, 
most of the policemen, the town clerk, the clerk of 
the court of probate, and various other town officers 
are Roman Catholics. The chairman of the board 
of education has been for several years and now is 
the Rev. Father Mulcahey, pastor of a Roman 
Catholic Church. The treasurer, clerk, the chair- 
man of the committee on text-books, and a majority 
of the school district finance committee, are Roman- 
ists." 

Now I would like to ask all true Americans what 
they think of this ? What do you think of Satolli 
going- and being- received as an envoy from the 
Pope, wearing- official robes, of praising- his schools, 
and his Church, and receiving- from the public 
authorities a welcome and praise that should be 



356 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

given, under such circumstances, to no one except 
to a representative of Uncle Sam ? 

He is a Diplomat. 

Whoever takes him for a fool, is mistaken ; who- 
ever wagers that he is more in sympathy with our 
free institutions than he is with the Pope, will lose 
his money. He is a trained diplomat. He is an 
accomplished man of the world. He is acquainted 
with the thoug-ht of the time. He is a full-fledg-ed 
Romanist, and as such knows how to make the 
worse appear the better side, and how to chang-e 
his tactics to suit the occasion. He has the history 
of Romanism and the policy of the Pope at his 
fing-ers' ends, and with flexibility he. adapts it to 
the surrounding- circumstances. 

HIS MISSION TO AMERICA. 

1. To State the Pope's Rulings. 

Satolli said at the World's Columbian Catholic 
Congress, "Study the encyclicals of Pope Leo 
XIII., . . . hold fast to them as the safest an- 
chorage. The social questions are being" studied 
the world over. It is well they should be studied 
in America, for here do we have more than else- 
where the keys of the future. This no one under- 
stands better than the immortal Leo, and he charg-es 
his deleg-ate to speak out to America words of hope 
and blessing-." 

The Roman Catholic Bishops of America, or at 
least some of them, particularly Bishops Spaulding-, 



Satolli and his Mission to America. 35/ 

McQuade, and Corrigan, have been hinting- at and 
desiring- home rule in the United States, but 
Satoili's decisions will settle this question. 

When Bishop Keane, of the Catholic University 
of Washing-ton, returned from a visit to Rome and 
the Pope, he was reported as saying that it is the 
Pope's intention to firmly establish and maintain 
the Satolli deleg-ation in the United States, to en- 
large the powers of the apostolic deleg-ate, and to 
make them commensurate with the extent and 
character of the country. The Bishop also stated 
that the Pope expressed great gratification with 
Satoili's work, and that he takes great interest in 
the political and religious affairs of America, and 
claims that America will be the bulwark of the 
Catholic Church of the future. 

2. To do for America what Rome has Done 
for Other Countries. 

Satolli is reported as saying, "What Rome has 
done for other countries, she will do for the United 
States." His biographer in Munsey's Magazine 
says: "Pope Leo rendered important services to 
the French Republic in two recent crises — so im- 
portant in the opinion of Chas. A. Dana, that 
without it, the republic would not have weathered 
the storm. It may yet appear that in the appoint- 
ment of Satolli to the American mission, he did 
the people's cause another notable service." 

I do not doubt that Rome intends to make an 
effort to do for America what she has done for 
other countries. She has degraded Spain, Italy, 



358 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

and Mexico, and now she pledges herself to degrade 
the United States. She proscribes the religious 
liberty of the Protestants in the capital of Austria, 
and she would like to do the same here. 

A. D. 1893, the Rock River (Ills.) Conference of 
theM. K. Church sent a letter to the Pope request- 
ing him to use his influence to give the same pro- 
tection to Protestants in South America that 
Protestants give to Romanists in the United States. 
One year passed away, and as no reply was received, 
a member wrote to Archbishop Ireland and Dele- 
gate Satolli, asking them to bring the action of 
the Conference to the notice of the Pope ; receiving 
no replies to these letters, a registered letter, signed 
by all the members, was sent to Satolli, to which 
he replied : "Your letter of June 22d and document 
dated July 12th came duly to hand. The enclosed 
copy of the encyclical letter of our Holy Father 
is, I think, the most fitting reply I can make." 
The reply not being satisfactory to the committee, 
the Rock River Conference and several other con- 
ferences have strongly expressed themselves on 
the subject of religious liberties. 

This action of the Pope and his representative 
is sufficient to convince American Protestants that 
Rome would like to do for the United States what 
she is doing for the Protestants of Peru, Ecuador 
and Bolivia : proscribe their religious liberties. 

3. To Settle Disputes. 

When he came to America, Romanism was in a 
congested condition. McGlynn and Corrigan were 



Satolli and his Mission to America. 359 

in trouble ; priests were groaning- under the tyran- 
ny of bishops ; many of the laity were objecting" 
to the parochial school system ; immigration had 
broug-ht many Catholics of different races to our 
country, and they were keeping- up their different 
tongues, customs and quarrels of Europe ; these 
jealousies, contentions and disputes were contin- 
ually traveling- across the sea to Pope Leo, and 
therefore he found it necessary to send a delegate to 
America who would be eyes and ears for him. 

It is now in order to make a statement of some 
of the disputes he has settled. 

1. The Mc Glynn Case. — The excommunication 
was removed, McGlynn denied what he said, he 
praised the Pope, and the people were deceived. 
Satolli promised McGlynn if he would go to Rome 
he would have his place back ag-ain. He came 
back from Rome, and was denied the privileg-e of 
appearing- at the altar as a priest, because of Cor- 
rig-an's power and the failure of Satolli to keep his 
promise. 

2. Priest Phelan and the Bishop. — Over two hun- 
dred priests broug-ht charges ag-ainst their bishop 
for innumerable and unmentionable crimes. Jus- 
tice was promised the priests. Phelan foug-ht the 
bishop as best he could ; he believed justice was on 
his side. But when the decision came he had to 
lick the dust and be told that "consecrated lips do 
not lie," and the whole matter was hushed up, and 
no one knows the true state of the case. 

3. The Trouble with the Archbishops at the Palace in 
New Yor k. — Satolli appeared with authority. The 



360 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

archbishops withstood him to his face ; he claimed 
they did not understand him, and asked them to 
wait and hear from Leo. When the message came 
from Leo, Satolli had sole power, and Archbishop 
Corrigan had to swallow his own word, and give 
Satolli a welcome and professed friendship. 

4. Priest Smith's Trouble at Paterson, N. J. — Trouble 
for a long - time had been brewing" between Priest 
Smith and his congregation. The latter appealed 
to Satolli, and a committee waited on him in the 
Vatican on the Potomac. He referred the case to 
Archbishop Corrigan, and gave the committee alet : 
ter purporting to be to that effect. But before leav- 
ing the room, the letter was opened in Satolli's pres- 
ence ; it was in Latin, and to the astonishment of 
the committee, instead of transferring the case, it 
indorsed and approved Priest Smith. A sensational 
scene occurred. The committee told Satolli that 
such methods would do in Italy, but they would 
never do in America. The apostolic delegate then 
promised that he would settle the case within two 
months, which promise he never kept. 

Some months after the above scene occurred, Sa- 
tolli stopped with Priest Smith on his way from 
Montreal. A committee of sixteen men forcibly 
entered the priest's residence, and refused to 
leave until they saw Satolli. A lively conver- 
sation ensued, and Mr. Gibson, the spokesman 
for the committee, said : "It is an outrage to send 
a man here from Italy, who cannot speak the Eng- 
lish language, to settle church matters in America." 
To this Satolli replied: "You insulted me by 



Satolli and his Mission to America. .361 

bringing- into my presence an apostate" (alluding to 
the interpreter who had gone with the committee 
to Washington); to which Gibson replied: "You 
will make more apostates than converts. It is an 
outrage to American citizenship that after you 
have promised to settle our troubles you have come 
here on a social visit to Smith, who is banned by the 
whole city. The American head of the Church 
must treat the people here as Americans, and not 
as foreign slaves." The New York World, from 
which we quote, says that the delegate's eyes 
blazed, his face turned deathly pale, and his lips 
compressed. He began to ascend the stairway 
three steps at a time, and when half way up, he 
caught his foot in the trail of his long silk gown 
and fell on the steps, and the enraged Gibson 
shouted after him : "Isn't that a dignified position 
for the head of the Catholic church of America ? 
Work of this kind will result for the Church at 
large in much the same way that the trouble in this 
miserable creature Smith's church has resulted for 
this bleeding and outraged congregation." This 
incident shows how helpless the Catholic laity are, 
and how little Satolli cares for his promises. 

5. The Saloon Question. In Ohio he stands for 
temperance, and in New York for the saloon. In 
Ohio he stood by Bishop Watterson, who ordered 
that Roman Catholics who sell liquor should surfer 
reproach in the Church of Rome. In New York 
City he winked at Corrigaa and the corrupt Tam- 
many Ring. 

To the temperance people he professed temper- 



362 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

ance. But when the saloon-men said they would 
neither get out of the Church nor out of the busi- 
ness, and claimed that they were the best sup- 
porters of Rome, it behooved Satolli to do some- 
thing- pleasing- to please the saloon-men ; and in 
order not to g-et mixed up in the papers, Mgr. 
Schroeder, a professor of theology at the Catholic 
University at Washington, speaking with author- 
ity for the delegate, explains that Satolli's letters 
were written only in defense of Bishop Watterson's 
authority, and then adds: "The Catholic Church 
has never condemned the reasonable and moderate 
use of spirituous beverag-es, nor has Mgr. Satolli, 
who is not a total abstinence man, but * takes a lit- 
tle wine for his stomach's sake,' etc. Further- 
more the apostolic delegate has ' never declared it 
a scandal for Catholics to conduct a saloon,' never 
decreed that spirituous liquors should be banished 
from Catholic houses or Catholic societies, or that 
Catholic saloon-keepers, because of their busi- 
ness, should be excluded from Catholic societies." 

And so the great ado that was made about rum- 
selling- by Romanists has passed by, and they con- 
tinue to sell and drink liquor. A Catholic saloon- 
keeper in Cincinnati, O., publicly said "that 
every German Catholic Church in that city was 
built by the proceeds from the sale of beer." 

Mr. Fulton says: "Satolli admits that he uses 
strong- drinks, and is ready to put the saloons un- 
der the ban and sell them a dispensation, and 
that he stood by Bishop Watterson in his actions 
and not by the principles of temperance." This 



Satolli and his Mission to America. 363 

little account of Satolli and the temperance ques- 
tion shows that his religion is sufficiently flexible 
to stand for temperance in Ohio and for rum in 
New York. 

4. To Make the Catholic Body of One 

Language. 
John Talbot Smith claims that it is Satolli's 
mission " to make the Catholic body of one lan- 
guage, of one habit, of one country." It is pertinent 
to inquire, " What the language ?" Smith says : 
"He is very Italian in appearance, and his pub- 
lic addresses are delivered in severe and elegant 
Latin." It appears that on nearly all public occa- 
sions he has spoken in Latin. How then is this 
Italian, who was brought up in a papal court, who 
is representing" the interests of a foreign power, 
and who is limited in his knowledge of English, 
to make the Americans of one language, unless it 
be the Latin languag-e? If it is the English lan- 
guage, would it not be advisable for him to speak 
in English, adopt English customs, wear English 
garments and have the English tongue used in the 
Catholic service, and have their decrees, etc., all 
printed in English ? I feel a little like the Catho- 
lic saloon-keeper in Cincinnati who insisted that 
" the Church be consistent." 

5. To Encourage and Support Parochial 

Schools. 

Thanksgiving Day, 1893, a reception was ten- 
dered Satolli in the city of Washington. At this 
reception the public press reported Satolli as saying : 



364 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

"The more public opinion, and the Government, 
will favor Catholic schools, more and more will the 
welfare of the commonwealth be advanced. The 
Catholic educator is the surest safeguard to the 
permanence throughout the centuries of the Con- 
stitution, and the best guide of the republic in civil 
progress." 

The Catholic weekly papers report him as say- 
ing : "The Holy See, far from condemning or 
treating with indifference the public schools, de- 
sires rather, that by the joint action of civil and ecclesi- 
astical authorities there should be public schools in 
every State, according as the circumstances of the 
people require, for the cultivation of the useful 
arts and the natural sciences; but the Catholic 
Church shrinks from those features of the public 
schools which are opposed to the truth of Christian- 
ity and to morality ; and since in the interest of the 
society, itself, these objectionable features are re- 
movable, therefore not only the bishops but the citi- 
zens at large should labor to remove them in virtue of 
their own right and in the cause of 'morality.' We 
p. e., the Pope and I] further desire that you strive 
earnestly that the various local authorities, firmly 
convinced that nothing is more conducive to the wel- 
fare of the commonwealth than religion, should 
by wise legislation provide that the system of educa- 
tion which is maintained at the public expense, and 
to which therefore Catholics also contribute their 
share, be in no way prejudicial to their conscience 
or religion. We do not think that anyone hereafter 
looking into these things clearly, will let Catholic 
parents be forced to erect and support schools 
which they cannot use for the instruction of their 
children." 

What do you think of these statements, coming 
from the head of the Roman Catholic Church in 



Satolli and his Mission to America. 365 

America ? He is the friend of the Pope, and his 
mission is to establish the Pope's claims in this 
country. Pope Leo, in an encyclical to the Bishop 
of New York, printed in the daily press in June, 
1892, said : 

"All agree to deny that neutral schools, i.e., 
schools devoid of all religion, may be approved; on 
the other hand, all favor denominational schools 
for countries inhabited by Catholics and non-Cath- 
olics, i. e., schools in which children are duly taught 
religion by those whom the bishops judge tit for 
such teaching. Hence, your chief duty, venerable 
brothers, is, in union with the other bishops of the 
United States, to put in common your counsels and 
efforts to obtain that Catholic children do not fre- 
quent schools where religious instruction is alto- 
gether omitted, and there is evident danger of 
moral perversion. We desire that you should 
endeavor to induce those who govern in your vari- 
ous States, and honestly acknowledge that of all 
things the most salutary to the republic is religion, 
to secure by wise legislation such a mode of teach- 
ing as shall not offend the religion and conscience 
of Catholics, who, equally with their non-Catholic 
fellow-citizens, furnish the means of education. 
We have conviction, based on the fair-mindedness 
and practical prudence of your countrymen, that 
they can be easily brought to lay aside suspicions 
and" prejudices offensive to the Church, and to recog- 
nize freely the services of that power which dissi- 
pated pagan barbarism with the light of the gospel, 
and created a new society with all its glories of 
Christian virtues and human culture. Such con- 
sideration will, I hope, lead every man in your 
country to the conclusion that the Catholic parents 
should not be forced to build and support schools 



366 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

and institutions they cannot use for the education 
of their children." 

Lest the bishops of America should be in doubt 
as to Satolli's position, the Pope states : 

"The principal propositions offered by him 
(Satolli) were drawn from the Third Plenary Coun- 
cil of Baltimore, and especially declare that Catho- 
lic schools are to be most sedulously promoted, and 
that it is to be left to the judgment of the ordinary 
to decide according- to the circumstances when it is 
lawful and when unlawful to attend these public 
schools." 

He added, moreover, "that these decrees, in so 
far as they contain a general rule of action, are 
faithfully to be observed, and that although the 
public schools are not to be entirely con- 
demned (since cases may occur in which it is 
lawful to attend them), still every endeavor should 
be made to multiply Catholic schools and to bring 
them to perfect equipment. But in order that 
in a matter of so grave importance, there may re- 
main no further room for doubt or for dissension of 
opinions, we again, so far as need be, declare that 
the decrees which the Baltimore Councils, agree- 
ably to the directions of the Holy See, have enact- 
ed concerning parochial schools, and whatever else 
has been prescribed by the Roman Pontiffs concern- 
ing the matter, are to be steadfastly observed."* 

In an article in the North American Review, Decem- 
ber, 1894, Satolli, speaking of the parochial Catho- 
lic system in Rome, says : 

"The Directive Council, faithful and wise inter- 
preter of the instructions of the Holy Father, has 
made it a special care that the pupils should be pre- 
served from a doctrine and system which might in- 

*See Appendix 13. 



Satolli and his Mission to America. 367 

still into their youthful hearts discouragement and 
doubt. It therefore selects the text-books with the 
greatest circumspection, and when it has been com- 
pelled by law to adopt any one that is erroneous or 
lacking- in principle, it has strictly enjoined the pro- 
fessors to make the necessary corrections and ob- 
servations when explaining - the same." 

In this article the cunning- and subtlety of Rome 
appears. Satolli insinuates that the system of 
g-overnment schools breeds discourag-ement and 
doubt, and some of the text-books are both erro- 
neous and lacking- in principle. It is the same at- 
titude of Rome toward the public schools of the 
United States. In closing- the article, he says : 

"The supreme end of these institutions, which 
is religious and moral education, has not been neg- 
lected in the regulations, programmes, books, or 
methods of teaching ; and it has been their special 
aim to deviate as little as possible from the national 
traditions which so harmoniously combine faith 
and science, and to furnish the boys and girls of 
the new generation with that grade of culture 
which is best adapted to their social position." 

Here we are told that the supreme end of the 
Catholic school system in Italy is to teach religion 
— the Roman Catholic religion — and for this pur- 
pose, great care has been exercised in providing 
books, programmes, etc., and, of course, the Cate- 
chism has not been overlooked. Patriotism takes 
either a second place or is entirely omitted. 

He also says that they deviate as little as possi- 
ble from national traditions. Why not say papal 
traditions? The sentence, "The national tradi- 
tions which so harmoniously combine faith and 



368 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

science," will suggest to every student of history, 
Galileo, Bruno, and others. 

And what parochial schools have done and are 
doing- for Italy, they will do for America. That 
Satolli and his supporters are doing - their utmost 
to create a sentiment in favor of the division of the 
public school money in the United States is evident, 
not alone, by what has been said, but by what has 
been done: 

In the year 1893 a circular was issued in Mary- 
land, appealing- to the leg-islature of that State, 
asking- for a portion of the public school funds of 
that State to aid in the support of parochial schools. 
The circular was said to have been indorsed by Sa- 
tolli. The circular deplores the absence of relig-- 
ion in the public schools, asks that the consciences 
of Catholic parents be respected, and that none 
be taxed without deriving- therefrom a correspond- 
ing- benefit. 

The New York correspondent of the St. Louis 
Republic, A. D. 1893, says that Dr. Walsh, the editor 
of the New York Sunday Democrat, and D. A. Spel- 
lacjr, were eng-ag-ed in obtaining- sig-natures to a 
petition addressed to the leg-islature of that State, 
that was approved at Rome and by the cardinals 
and bishops in all English-speaking- countries, as 
well as by some of the most noted dig-nitaries of 
France and Germany. This bill received upwards 
of a million sig-natures, and its purpose was, in the 
words of Dr. Walsh, "to g-et the members of the 
leg-islature on record on this question." The papers 
from which I quote do not give a cop}' of the bill, 



Satolli and his Mission to America. 369 

and I do not know what became of it ; but this I do 
know, that in September, A. D. 1894, there was 
presented in the New York Constitutional Conven- 
tion the following- amendments to the educational 
article : 

Forbes' amendment, providing- that the section 
forbidding- the use of public money for sectarian 
schools shall not apply to orphan asylums or insti- 
tutions for the care of persons under sixteen years 
old. 

Lauterbach's amendment, providing- that the sec- 
tarian section " shall not apply to orphan asylums 
or correctional institutions, in which education is 
incidental oniy.'' 

Marshall's amendment, authorizing- the appro- 
priation of public money for secular instruction in 
orphan asylums and reformatories. 

Carter's amendment, providing- for the election 
of the superintendent of public instruction by the 
reg-ents. 

These amendments were defeated by a bare 
majority. Leng-thy discussions followed these pro- 
posed amendments, in which the subtlety and policy 
of Rome were manifest. Althoug-h the majority 
was small, yet it was sufficient to say that the 
liberties of New York were saved from the most 
serious peril. By a subsequent vote of 77 to 60, the 
educational article in its original form was ordered 
to the third reading-, and it now stands as follows : 

;< Neither the State, nor any subdivision thereof, 
shall use its property or credit or any public money, 
or authorize or permit either to be used, directly or 

24 



370 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for 
examination or inspection, of any school or institu- 
tion of learning" wholly, or in part, under the con- 
trol or direction of a religious denomination, or in 
which any denominational tenet or doctrine is 
taugiit." 

I have said sufficient to convince Protestants that 
this friend of the Pope is here to meddle with our 
free institutions ; he is here to tell our American 
children "when it is lawful and when unlawful to 
attend the public schools "; he is here to secure by 
wise legislation such a mode of teaching- as shall 
not offend the religion and conscience of Catholics; 
he is here to convince Americans that Catholic 
parents should not be required to build and support 
schools and institutions which they do not use for 
the education of their children ; he is here to mold 
and frame public opinion to suit the Holy See ; he 
is here to take a hand in the g-overnment of our 
country ; he is here to look after the Roman Cath- 
olic schools among* the Indians, and to see that the 
Government continues its appropriations to support 

them. 

CONCLUSION. 

There are some things that Satolli has failed to 
do that should have been done. He has tithed mint, 
anise and cummin, and omitted some of the weigh- 
tier matters of the law. When the great strike 
was raging" and three hundred thousand people were 
crying" for bread, and fully two hundred and fifty 
thousand of them were Roman Catholics, Satolli and 
his bishops, who represent the Holy Mother Church, 
and most of whom are rolling" in wealth, did not 



Satolli and his Mission to America. 371 

« 

come to the rescue of the poor sufferers. This, in 
my mind, was a grave sin of omission on the part 
of the man who claims to represent the Vicar of 
Christ. During" political campaig-ns and elections 
the Romish hierarchy controls and directs the 
votes of their poor people; but when these poor 
people are threatened with, starvation, the same 
hierarchy maintains indifference. 

Satolli the American Pope. 

The interests of Rome are so great in the United 
States that according- to Bishop Keane, it has be- 
come necessary for the Pope " to establish a papal 
legation in Washington, commensurate with the 
extent and character of this country." 

Now if this little Pope contemplates recognition 
as a representative power at the hands of the peo- 
ple and Government, I believe that forty million 
patriotic voices in the United States will thunder 
their objections in no uncertain sounds. 

Must Washington become the home of the Pope? 
Must it be dominated by Roman Catholic influ- 
ence ? Must our Declaration of Independence 
ag'ainst foreign power be of no avail ? 

It has come direct to me from Catholic lips, that 
many Catholics believe that Satolli will be the 
next Pope, and will establish the Vatican in Amer- 
ca, and that his presence here and work are looking" 
to that end. The report may receive some cre- 
dence in view of the statement made by one of 
their dig-nitaries that .America is the only place 
where the Pope rules. 

These pretenses and presumptions are becom- 



372 America ok Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

ing - too numerous and daring - for patriotic Ameri- 
cans to allow them to pass unnoticed ; and before our 
country commits suicide it is time that Protestants 
are exercising- their power, politically and other- 
wise, to prevent this papal delegation, whose sworn 
doctrines are against our liberties, from obtaining - 
recognition as a Church at the hands of the United 
States. It is hig-h time that Protestants are watch- 
ing - the movements of the Roman Catholic bishops, 
priests and plotters. It is also time to watch Prot- 
estant editors and politicians who are courting - the 
favors of Rome, and are denouncing - all efforts to 
preserve our liberties, and are saying nothing - 
ag-ainst the Jesuitical influences that are under- 
mining - them. 

The Battle is On. 
Rome has made the attack ; she has sent her 
g-enerals to lead an army that counts its numbers 
by the millions ag"ainst our national institutions. 
The battle is on. And unless Rome calls off her 
dogs of war this whole continent will soon be in 
the throes of a terrible struggle. Rome has start- 
ed an agitation in this country that is awakening - 
the largest lion on the face of the earth — Protes- 
tant America — and remember my words, when this 
lion is fairly aroused, shakes his mane, lifts his 
paw, and g-ives his roaring - command, the struggle 
will continue until every Jesuit will be forever ban- 
ished from this beautiful and fair land. 

Shall we Give up Our Public Schools? 
Shall I ever cease to praise our public schools? 
Shall I forget the old schoolhouse at the cross- 



374 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

roads that I attended for twelve years ? Shall I 
forget those happy days ? Shall I forget how the 
children mingled together in their innocent sports ? 
Shall I forget how they plucked the wild grapes as 
they grew purple in the kisses of the autumn sun ? 
how they vied with each other in their studies ? 
and how they were taught to love our great coun- 
try, with its common interests and common perils? 
My right hand will forget its cunning before I shall 
forget that old schoolhouse, and nry tongue will 
cleave to my mouth before I shall cease to sound 
the praises of our public schools. Out from these 
schools have come our ablest men, our strongest 
patriots, our purest daughters, our sweetest wives, 
and most devoted mothers. And the man that 
dares to call them "Godless," "eternally debauched " 
and "grossly immoral," may just as well call our 
Constitution "Godless," and our people "Godless," 
and he may just as well take you by the throat and 
raise the assassin's knife. 

This question means a life or death struggle to 
Protestantism or Romanism in America. It has 
resolved into a few simple questions : Shall the 
patriotic Roman Catholic laymen be cheated out of 
their birthrights by a foreign potentate ? Shall 
Protestants permit this Italian meddler and his 
bishops and priests to throw dust in their eyes ? 
Shall they give up the public school for the paro- 
chial school ? Shall they surrender their accurate 
histories for falsified histories? Shall they ex- 
change honest school boards and honest teachers 
for packed school boards and intimidated teachers? 



Satolli and his Mission to America. 



375 




Shall they surrender the stars and stripes for the 
papal emblem ? Shall they give up their liberties 
to priestly interference ? Shall they permit the 
Pope to make his future home in America ? Shall 
we be loyal to our Constitution or to the papal hier- 
archy? Shall we stand for the land of indepen- 
dence, or for the land of Popes, hand-organs, mon- 
keys, ignorance and assassins ? 

Shall we sit idly by, or speak like patriotic Chris- 
tian citizens until there shall be such a volume of 
public sentiment created against Satolli that he will 
hasten back to Italy,* where he may wear his little 
red hat and enjoy the papal influence that has re- 
duced the citizens of Italy to such a low level that 
scarcely ten per cent, are able to read and write. 



&76 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope\ 

Satolli, go ! for don't you know 

You are not needed here ? 
Our schools — our hope — don't want the Pope 

To take the helm and steer. ' 

With level head, our fathers said 

"A state without a king" " — 
Their children say to you to-da} T , 

" Your words lack loyal ring - ." 

No priest for state, no ablegate, 

Our politics shall stain ; 
Now tell the Pope, " Haul in your rope 

And pull me back again." 

Submit our schools to Roman rules ? 

No ! Rome shan't interfere ; 
Your church is free, and so are we ; 

Our rights to us are dear. 

Go, Satolli, go back to Italy ! 

Thou friend of the Pope, go ! 
Now pack your traps and tighten straps : 

The show is over — go ! 

— Prof. H. H. Lincoln. 



WHAT GREAT MEN HAVE SAID OF ROME. 



In this chapter we present to our readers pungent 
extracts on the subject of Romanism from the writ- 
ings and speeches of some of the world's greatest 
statesmen, generals, authors, reformers, theolo- 
gians, et '. Read and reflect. 

The Next Conflict. — If the liberties of the 
American people are ever destroyed, it will be by 
the power of the Roman clergy. — Marquis de La 
Fayette. 

The Jesuits.— The Jesuits constitute one of the 
wisest, shrewdest, and most dangerous organized 
bodies of men to be found in this world. — Prof. L. 
T. Toicnsend. 

The Third Conflict. — This country had its 
first conflict for its independent existence ; its sec- 
ond for its unbroken unity ; the third will be for 
its institutions. — Dr. Philip Schaff. 

No Communion with Heretics. — No Roman 
Catholic does, or can, give security for his allegi- 
ance or peaceful behavior. His argument is based 
on the maxim of the Romish Church, that "no 
faith is to be kept with heretics." — John Wesley. 

[377) 



378 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

The Papacy. — Under Antonelli's guidance it is 
like the subterranean sewers of large cities: it carries 
all the filth. When it is stopped and filtered, it 
spreads infection and death. — Gattina. 

Popery a Political Power. — Popery is a polit- 
ical system, despotic in its organization, anti-dem- 
ocratic and anti-republican, and cannot, therefore, 
exist with American republicanism. — Prof. Morse. 

Popery an Ecclesiastical and Political Pow- 
er. — Popery is a double thing to deal with, and 
claims a twofold power, ecclesiastical and politi- 
cal ; both usurped, and the one supporting the oth- 
er. - John Milton. 

Polity of Rome. — The polity of the Church of 

Rome is the very masterpiece of human wisdom. 

Among the contrivances which have been 

devised for deceiving and controlling mankind, it 

occupies the highest place. — Macaulay. 

Spanish Catholics in Colorado. — We have me- 
diaeval Spanish Catholicism voting in Colorado. If 
the spirit of the Lord descends with tongues of fire 
on a Christian College in the New West, it is likely 
that one of the tongues will be Spanish. — E. P. 
Tenney, President Colorado College. 

Never Surrender the Public Schools. — The 
surrendering of our free school system, the dividing 
of the public funds, the recognition of sects in the 
administration of the Government, would be the 
death-blow of the republic, would mark the failure 
of the American experiment. — Gail Hamilton, in 
North American Review. 




Gladstone. 



380 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

The Bible. — To all the decisions of Fathers, of 
men, of angels, of devils, I oppose, not the antiq- 
uity of custom, not the habits of the many, but 
the Word of the Eternal God — the Gospel — which 
they themselves are obliged to admit. It is to this 
book that I keep — upon it I rest — in it I make my 
boast —in it I triumph over papists. — Martin Luther. 

Sherman's Religious Views.— In giving- to the 
North American Review at this late day these letters, 
which thus far have remained hidden in my private 
files, I commit no breach of confidence, and to put 
to rest a matter of constant inquiry referred to in 
my letter of May 28, 1884, I here record that my 
immediate family are strongly Catholic. I am not, 
and cannot be. — Gen I Sherman. 

The Right of Private Judgment. — The one 
question greater than ail others has been in regard 
totherightof men to think for themselves, especially 
in matters pertaining to religion. Popes, arch- 
bishops, cardinals, bishops, and priests have dis- 
puted the right, to secure which hundred of thou- 
sands of men and women have 3-ielded their lives. 
— Charles Carleton Coffin, in "The Story of Libert} 7 ." 

The Miracles of Rome. — And now I am sorry 
that I have occasion to say it, but it is too true that 
the miracles pretended to by the Church of Rome, 
for the confirmation of her erroneous doctrines, are 
taxed by several of their best writers of imposture 
and forgery, of fable and romance, so extravagant 
and freakish and fantastical, wrought without any 
necessity, and serving to no wise end, that they are 



What Great Men have said of Home. 381 

so far from giving- credit to their doctrines, that 
they are a mighty scandal to them and our common 
Christianity. — Stanley S. Gibson. 

Afraid of the Living Christ. — Few things so 
frighten the dignitaries of Rome as the appear- 
ance of this living Christ. An immoral priest may 
confess to his brother priest and be absolved any 
number of times without losing his position, but 
let him preach a living Christ, mighty to save, 
without sacrament or saint, and he is hurled from 
his priestly office amid thunders and lightnings of 
papal anathema. — A. C. Dixon. 

The Bible and Tradition. — The Bible, accord- 
ing to her, is an imperfect book, containing only 
a part of revelation, the remainder being laid up 
in the traditions of the Church, without which the 
Bible cannot be understood, and which we are 
therefore commanded by the Council of Trent to 
receive with equal reverence and affection as the 
writings of the prophets and apostles. — Rev. John 
Dick, D. D., in Lectures on Theology. 

Rome Opposed to the Public Schools. — It is no 
secret that the Roman Catholic Church is utterly 
and irrevocably opposed to our common school sys- 
tem. We do not blame them for that. They have 
a perfect right to provide a better way. We only 
insist that they shall present their substitute open- 
ly, so that there can be no mistaking the issue. 
Then we shall be quite content to leave the result 
to the verdict of the American people. — H. W. 
Beecher. 



382 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 




James A. Garfield. 



Separation op Church and State. — Next in 
importance to freedom and justice, is popular edu- 
cation, without which neither freedom nor justice 
can be permanently maintained. It would be unjust 
to our people, and dang-erous to our institutions, to 
apply any portion of the revenue of the nation, or 
of the state, to the support of sectarian schools. 
The separation of the church and state, in every- 
thing- relating" to taxation, should be absolute. — 
Pres. Garfield's Letter of Acceptance, July 12, 1880. 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 383 

The Third Conflict. — Upon the third conflict 
the nation has entered. There is to-day an organ- 
ized and persistent attempt, under foreign leader- 
ship and under mask of devotion to liberty of con- 
science and liberty of worship, to control the pri- 
mary education of the youth of the state, and to 
prevent, by spiritual threats and undue influence, 
the attendance of the children to-day, who are the 
voters of to-morrow, upon our public schools, and 
to pervert to sectarian purposes the sacred school 
fund. — Josiah Strong. 

The Pope Opposed to Progress. — There is 
not a single progressive principle which has not 
been cursed by the Catholic Church. This is true 
of England and Germany, as well as of Catholic 
countries. The Church cursed the French Revolu- 
tion, the Belgian Constitution and the Italian In- 
dependence. Nevertheless, all these principles 
have unrolled themselves in spite of it. Not a con- 
stitution has been born, not a single progress 
made, not a solitary reform effected, which has not 
been under the terrible anathemas of the Church. — 
Castelar. 

Rome and Tammany Hall. — Its triumphal car- 
riage is a beer-wagon. Its throne is a whisky- 
barrel. Its scepter is a policeman's club, and its 
crown is of ivy-leaves dedicated to Venus and 
Bacchus. And all over the civic crown is a tiara 
of the Pope of Rome. . . . Let me give you a 
recipe for making Tammany Hall. Select a great 
caldron, presided over by witches, representing 



384 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

various crimes. Kindle the fires underneath with 
embers brought from Hades. Put in intellectual 
ignorance, social vulgarity, political fever, religious 
bigotry, typical thuggism, political venality, varie- 
gated murder, and sprinkle the whole with holy 
water. — Dr. Mac Arthur. 

The Pope's Power in Prussia. — This Pope, this 
foreigner, this Italian, is more powerful in this 
country than any other person, not excepting the 
King. And now please to consider what this for- 
eigner has announced as the programme by which 
he rules Prussia and elsewhere. He begins by 
taking to himself the right to define how far his 
authority extends ; and this Pope, who would em- 
ploy fire and sword against us if he had the power 
to do so, who would confiscate our property and not 
spare our lives, expects us to allow him full, un- 
controlled sway. — Bismarck. 

Order of Hibernians. — I tell you we are living 
upon a volcano. I hold here in my hands the con- 
stitution and laws of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
nians. It is a complete military organization, and 
in every county and town throughout these United 
States, under the priest, by his direction, the whole 
of the Roman Catholic population of the male per- 
suasion are being drilled and disciplined. I ob- 
tained possession of this only last year, when they 
met at Louisville and completely organized their 
national compact. I have made a copy of a portion 
of it, and if you will obtain a copy of it, it 
will g"ive you startling information. Battalions, 




Bismarck. 



386 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

regiments, companies, everywhere, they are com- 
pelled to join this military organization. — Col. Ed- 
win A. Sherman. 

Obedience to Priests. — Every true Catholic is 
bound to think and act as his priest tells him, and 
a republic of true Roman Catholics becomes a 
theocracy administered by the clergy. It is only 
as they are a small minority that they can be loyal 
subjects under such a constitution as the American. 
As their numbers grow they will assert their princi- 
ples more and more. Give them power, and the Con- 
stitution will be gone. A Roman Catholic majority, 
under spiritual direction, will forbid liberty of wor- 
ship, and will control eduoation ; it will muzzle the 
press ; it will punish with excommunication, and 
excommunication will be attended with civil dis- 
abilities. — Froude, the Historian. 

Jesuits. — In Washington is an organization that 
has set out to control this country, which has been 
repudiated by every free country, Catholic and 
Protestant, in the Old World ; they have come to 
our borders ; -they are among us, and to stay ; 
and they understand they are to secure the con- 
trol of this continent by destroying the public 
school system of America. They are engaged 
in that nefarious, wicked work. And as Jesuits 
have been expelled from the Old World, let 
me say the time is soon coming when the Jesuits 
will be looked upon as more the enemy of this 
country than is the anarchy of to-day. And the 
process either of their expulsion or of their conver- 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 387 

sion will be one in which the American people will 
sometime be engaged, unless the order change 
their programme and their work. — Senator Blair. 

The Martyrs. — We cannot compete in bitterness 
with a church that burned John Oldcastle, and 
scattered the ashes of Wycliffe, and massacred the 
Waldenses, and dug the Inquisition, and roasted over 
slow fires Nicholas Ridley, and had medals struck 
in honor of St. Bartholomew's massacre, and took 
God's dear children and cut out their tongues, and 
poured hot lead into their ears, and tore out their 
nails with pincers, and let water fall upon their 
heads until it wore to the brain, and wrenched their 
bodies limb from limb, and into the wine-press of 
its wrath threw the red clusters of a million human 
hearts, till under the trampling of their feet the 
blood foamed to the lip of their impearled chalices. 
— Dr. T. Dewitt Talma ge. 

Church and State. — "No state shall make any 
law representing an establishment «">f religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; and no money 
raised by school taxation in any State, for the sup- 
port of public schools, or derived from any public 
fund therefor, nor any public lands devoted thereto, 
shall ever be under the control of any religious 
sect; nor shall any money so raised, or land so 
devoted, be divided among religious sects or denom- 
inations." 

James G. Blaine presented this article in the 
House of Representatives as a Constitutional Amend- 
ment, and "it was stated by Senator Blair, as a 



388 



America or IIome: Christ or the Pope. 



matter of history, on the 15th of February, 1888, 
that the defeat of this amendment was brought 
about by the Jesuits." — From " Two Sides of the 
School Question." 




U. S. Grant. 



Encourage Free Schools. — If we are to have 
another contest in the near future of our national 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 38$ 

existence, I predict that the dividing- line will not 
be Mason and Dixon's, but it will be between pa- 
triotism and intelligence on one side, and super- 
stition, ambition and ignorance on the other. In 
this centennial year, the work of strengthening- the 
foundation of the structure laid by our forefathers 
one hundred years ago, should be begun. Let us 
all labor for the security of free thought, free 
speech, free press, and pure morals, unfettered re- 
ligious sentiments, and equal rights and privileges 
for all men, irrespective of nationality, color or re- 
ligion. Encourage free schools, and resolve that 
not one dollar appropriated to them shall be ap- 
plied to the support of any sectarian school; re- 
solve that any child in the land may get a common 
school education, unmixed with atheistic, pagan, 
or sectarian teachings ; keep the church and state 
forever separate. — Gen. Grant. 

Romanism Suspected. — The Catholic Church in 
America is to-day under suspicion, aroused by its 
history. If it continues to attack the public schools, 
men will universally conclude, as some have frankly 
declared, that the Catholic Church is afraid of gen- 
eral intelligence, and therefore fears common 
schools. If it continues to provoke hostilities by 
any of those means which have been suggested, 
then is the controversy inevitable, which in the 
words of The Churchman i (a Protestant Episcopal 
organ) "would be a great public misfortune, for it 
is certain that it would revive those old hatreds 
which are far more at variance with Christ's religion 



390 America or IIome: Christ or the Pope. 

than are errors of intellect." And sad will be the 
day for civilization, for religion, for the Catholic 
Church, when this thing* comes to pass. — E. M, 
Winston, in the Forum, June, 1894. 

Denial of Religious Liberty. — The Church of 
Rome is founded on a rock indeed — not that on 
which Christ has founded His church, but the rock 
on which that Church is founded is the denial of 
religious liberty. I will tell you where you will 
find the true exponent of Romanism. Wherever 
you can g*et a mob of Irishmen to break up a Sun- 
day-school, and assail the children in the streets, 
there is the infallible, the immutable doctrine of 
the Church of Rome, the application of physical 
force as pertaining" to religion. Dr. Kelley had an 
opportunity to see it in the island of Madeira. 
There, not only the church but the government 
was Roman Catholic, and the people were "Catho- 
lic," and even the power of the British Government, 
of which he was a subject, could not have protected 
him but for his concealment. This is the immuta- 
bility of the Church of Rome, and it is in relation 
to this very point that we are to maintain our con- 
flict in this country. — Rev. Leonard Bacon, D. D. 

Roman Paganism. — It is a fact, too well estab- 
lished to admit of doubt or denial, that, for twelve 
centuries or upward, a system of religious worship 
has existed, supported by a vast and powerful hier- 
archy, having- its headquarters in the city of Rome, 
called by the name of Christianity^, but possessing 
the closest possible resemblance to paganism, in 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 391 

the rank and order of its priesthood; from the Pope 
downward through every gradation, in its pompous 
and imposing ceremonies of worship, as well as in 
the images it reverences or adores, it is almost 
identically the same. This resemblance is so strik- 
ing, as well as so extensive, as to force upon us the 
conviction that the elder is the parent of the 
younger, and that not the spiritual religion of the 
despised Nazarene, the Gospel which Paul preached, 
but Roman paganism, such as it was in the days of 
Cicero, or Virgil, is the source from which is 
derived, and the model upon which is framed, the 
whole fabric of Roman Papal worship — Br. Dow- 
ling. 

Romanism Opposed to Freedom. — The influence 
of the Roman Catholic Church is adverse to free- 
dom in the state, the family, and the individual. 
The clerical government at Rome has every 
vice under the sua. . . . Rome does not keep 
good faith with history as it is handed down to her 
and marked out for her by her own annals. 
To secure rights has been, and is, the aim of Chris- 
tian civilization; to destroy them and to establish the 
resistless, domineering action of a purely control 
power, is the aim of the Roman polity. 
The Pope demands for himself the right to deter- 
mine the province of his own rights, and has so 
denned it in formal documents as to warrant any 
and every invasion of the civil sphere. . . . 
Rome requires a convert who joins her, to forfeit 
his moral and mental freedom, and to place his loy- 



392 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

alty and civil duty at the mercy of another. . . 
No more cunning - plot was ever devised ag-ainst the 
intelligence, the freedom, the happiness and virtue 
of mankind than Romanism. — W. E. Gladstone. 

The Inquisition. — The Inquisition, which cer- 
tain men of the party try to-day to reestablish ; which 
has burned on the funeral-pile millions of men; the 
Inquisition, which disinterred the dead to burn them 
as heretics; which declared the children of heretics 
infamous and incapable of any public honors, ex- 
cepting" only those who shall have denounced their 
fathers ; the Inquisition, which, while I speak, still 
holds in the papal library the manuscripts of 
Galileo sealed under the papal sig-net. These are 
your masterpieces. This fire, which we call Italy, 
you have exting-uished. This Colossus, that we call 
Spain, you have undermined — the one in ashes, the 
other in ruins. This is what you have done for two 
great nations. What do you wish to do for France ? 
Stop ! you have just come from Rome. I congratu- 
late you, you have had fine success there. You 
come from g"ag-g-ing- the Roman people, and now 
3 t ou wish to g*ag- the French people. I understand. 
This attempt is still more fine, but take care — it is 
dangerous. France is a lion, and is still alive ! — 
Victor Hugo. 

The Jesuits and their Purposes. — They are 
simply a band of ecclesiastical office-holders, held 
together by the cohesive power of common ambi- 
tion as compactly as an army of soldiers, and are 
g-overned by a commander-in-chief, whose brow 



' 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 393 

they would adorn forever with a kingly crown, and 
who wields the papal lash over them with imperial 
threatenings. All these, with exceptions, if any, 
too few to be observed, are laboring with wonder- 
ful assiduity to educate the whole membership of 
their Church up to the point of accepting, without 
hesitation or inquiry, all the Jesuit teaching in 
reference to the papacy as a necessary and indis- 
pensable part of their religious faith ; so that, when- 
soever the papal order shall be issued, they may 
march their columns unbroken into the papal army. 
With blasphemous and fulsome adulation of the 
Pope, app^ing to him terms which are due only to 
God, they are all devoted to the object of exter- 
minating Protestantism, civil and religious, and 
extending the scepter of the papacy over the world. 
— R. W. Thompson. 

Paganized Christianity. — Is not the worship 
of saints and angels now in all respects the same 
as the worship of demons was in the former times ? 
The name only is different, the thing is identically 
the same thing, . . . the deified men of the 
Christians are substituted for the deified men of 
the heathens. The promoters of this worship were 
sensible that it was the same, and that the one suc- 
ceeded to the other ; and as the worship is the 
same, so likewise it is performed with the same cere- 
monies. Nay, the very same temples, the very 
same images, which were once consecrated to Jupi- 
ter and the other demons, are now consecrated 
to the Virgin Mary and the other saints. The 



394 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

very same rites and inscriptions are ascribed to 
both, the very same prodigies and miracles are re- 
lated of these as of those. In short, almost the 
whole of paganism is converted and applied to 
popery ; the one is manifestly formed upon the 
same plan and principles as the other ; so that 
there is not only a conformity, but even a uniform- 
ity, in the worship of ancient and modern, of 
heathen and Christian Rome. — Bishop Newton. 

Immorality of the Throne. — The conceit of 
infallible opinion is a horrible curse to mankind ; 
the blood of ten thousand martyrs is on its head, 
and the bitterness of millions of broken hearts lies 
at its doors. What was called orthodoxy, what 
was called Catholicity, was often hideous error, 
despicable for its ignorance and execrable for its 
cruelties. Men were massacred wholesale for sup- 
posed mistaken tenets, while vice and villainy 
flaunted in high places unrebuked. A Pope steeped 
to the lips with infamy founded the Inquisition ; 
murderers and acfulterers died in the odor of 
sanctity if they professed zeal for orthodoxy and 
subservience to the priests. Charles V. and Philip 
II., men grossly immoral in personal character, 
doomed eighteen hundred innocent victims to the 
scaffold or the stake, in the Netherlands alone, for 
such crimes as eating flesh in Lent, or reading the 
Psalms in their native language. . . . When 
the sweet odor of the returning Gospel invaded 
men's souls with the brilliancy of heaven, there was 
a brief bursting of this iron network of false tradi- 
tions. — Canon Farrar. 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 395 

Pagan and Modern Rome. — The Roman em- 
pire lost not its sway, but only changed its sceptre. 
The Emperor gave way to the Pope. The supreme 
authority was transferred from the palace of the 
Caesars to the Vatican. The leg-ions of vanquished 
soldiers gave wa} 7 to hordes of invincible monks, the 
tyranny of a Nero and a Caligula to that of the In- 
quisition and the Jesuit Fathers. And again for 
centuries Rome ruled the world, which seemed by 
the eruptions of the northern barbarians to have 
broken the yoke, which was really only changed, not 
lightened. Thus Rome has a double history. There 
is a classic and there is an ecclesiastical Rome, a pa- 
gan and a Christian Rome, a Rome of the Caesars and 
a Rome of the Popes. And as it has a double history, 
so there is a double city : a city of antique ruins, and 
a city of ecclesiastical relics ; a city of viaducts and 
arches and palaces and heathen temples, and a 
city of churches and saints and sacred art ; a city 
of ruined circuses and theatres, and a city of pa- 
pal pageantry; a city whose heart is the ancient 
Roman forum, and a city whose center is the com- 
paratively modern St. Peter's and the Vatican. — 
Harper's Monthly. 

Rome's Attitude Towards the Nineteenth 
Century. — During fifty years a marvelously rich 
development had taken place in human affairs — a 
marvelous progress in intelligence, in regulated 
freedom of thought and action, in inventions highly 
endowed with power to benefit man ; and by neces- 
sary consequence a marvelous addition to the well- 



396 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

being- of the human family. It behooved the 
Church to express herself regarding- these unprece- 
dented circumstances. She opened her lips to 
curse them. She announced irreconcilable and 
eternal hostility to the spirit and impulses which 
are the peculiar glory of the age. She placed the 
stamp of her preference upon the imperfect devel- 
opment of an earlier time. She condemned heaven's 
great law of progress — of advancement from a 
lower level of civilization and well-being to a 
higher, and sought to lay enduring arrest upon its 
operation. Thus, Rome broke finally with the 
nineteenth century, and declared antagonism to all 
its maxims, its aims, its achievements. And the 
millions who owned her sway raised no protest, ut- 
tered no remonstrance. Nay, a few years later, 
their chiefs are found solemnly declaring that the 
man who was specially chargeable with this egre- 
gious folly was so amply blessed with divine guid- 
ance that error was to him impossible. — R. Macken- 
zie, in Nineteenth Century. 

The Pope or the Constitution. — No man can 
serve two masters. To the true papist the Pope 
is the supreme master. The tiara is high above 
all other crowns. The loyalty of the true papist 
is pledged to Rome. He is Romanist first, and 
British second. Nor am I to be put off my 
guard by being told that the Pope cannot, in these 
enlightened days, carry out his irieal and abstract 
pretensions. It is enough for me that he makes 
them. He will carry them out if he can, If he 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 397 

cannot carry them out it is because of that very Prot- 
estantism which he hates with unspeakable bitter- 
ness. The constitution of nations must g-ive way, 
but not the policy of the Pope. He must conquer 
all along- the line. His Holiness never budg-es an 
inch. Thus we bow to the very supremacy which 
we deny. We laug-h at the Pope's claims and concede 
them. We deride the Pope's infallibility, and then 
bow down before it. I am not beg-uiled by rhetoric 
when I characterize papal history as a record of 
superstition, tyranny, and bloodshed. And popery 
never alters. That is the point you have to keep 
in mind. If popery has ever extended the liberties 
of the people, I call for the evidence. If popery 
has ever made the Bible a people's book, I call for 
the evidence. If popery has ever led the nations 
in healthy thought and democratic progress, I call 
for the evidence. — Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker, London. 

Lincoln's Declaration and Prophecy. — As 
long* as God gives me a heart to feel, a brain to 
think, or a hand to execute my will, I devote it 
ag-ainst that power which has attempted to use 
the machinery of the courts to destroy the rig-hts 
and character of an American citizen. But there is 
a thing* which is very certain ; it is, that if the 
American people could learn what I know of the 
fierce hatred of the g-enerality of the priests of 
Rome ag-ainst our institutions, our schools, our 
most sacred rig-hts, and our so dearly boug-ht liber- 
ties, they would drive them away, to-morrow, from 
among- us, or would shoot them as traitors. 



398 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope 

The history of the last thousand years tells us that 
wherever the Church of Rome is not a dag-g-er to 
pierce the bosom of a free nation, she is a stone to 
her neck, and a ball to her feet, to paralyze her and 
prevent her advance in the ways of civilization, 
science, intelligence, happiness, and liberty. . . . 
I do not pretend to be a prophet. But thoug-h not 
a prophet, I see a very dark cloud on our horizon. 
And that dark cloud is coming- from Rome. It is 
filled with tears of blood. It will rise and increase, 
till its flanks will be torn by a flash of lig-htning-, 
followed by a fearful peal of thunder. Then a 
cyclone such as the world has never seen, will pass 
over this country, spreading- ruin and desolation 
from north to south. After it is over, there will be 
long" days of peace and prosperity ; for popery, 
with its Jesuits and merciless Inquisition, will have 
been forever swept away from our country. Neither 
I nor you, but our children, will see those thing-s. — ■ 
Abraham Lincoln. 

Romanism and Protestantism Contrasted. — 
Put into the contrast Italy and Prussia. North 
Germany, as compared with Italy, has many physi- 
cal disadvantag-es — a poor soil, an inclement 
climate. We know what the German Universities 
are, as compared with the Italian in the last hun- 
dred years. I was assured in Rome by a most 
scholarly and painstaking- Italian statistician, that 
when the Papal States, in which the Pope had his 
own way, fell into the hands of Victor Emmanuel, a 
less proportion of the adult inhabitants could read 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 399 

and write than in the darkest provinces of Spain. 
Contrast Spain with England, or Portugal with 
Scotland. Edmund Burke called Spain a stranded 
whale on the coast of Europe. Why has it not had 
recuperative force enough to flounder back into the 
sea ? How is it that Protestant nations not great- 
ly favored by climate or position strike into the 
vanguard of progress, while the most favored semi- 
tropical nations drop behind, fall into ignorance, 
pauperism, general decay, and exhibit so little recu- 
perative force ? Compare the Catholic and Prot- 
estant cantons of Switzerland. Dickens says you 
would perceive the difference in their condition, 
even if you walked across the borders between them 
in the night. It has been my fortune to be mobbed 
on the St. Lawrence for temperately asserting in 
defense of a Protestant colporteur, who was my 
companion, that I did not believe that a priest 
could raise the dead. One is surprised in Canada 
to this moment, in the eastern and Romish portion 
of the Dominion, to find the rural population very 
largely in a state of prolonged childhood, just such 
as characterizes the agricultural people of Italy 
and South Germany and Austria. In Western 
Canada we have the brain of the Dominion, and a 
heart and enterprise that are reaching out their 
arms to clasp Manitoba and the fat valley of the 
Saskatchewan and the Pacific. Western Canada 
is a Protestant region; and its recuperative force, its 
progressive valor, contrast sharply with the lassi- 
tude of Eastern Canada, and result very largely 
from its different church life. — Joseph Cook. 



400 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 




j. G. Whitk. 



Warning Voice. — Romanism and Christianity 
are antagonistic. Between them there is, of neces- 
sity, an irrepressible conflict. This conflict is des- 
tined to be the great conflict of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. Prophecy and Providence indicate that the 
present generation will be required to assume fear- 
ful responsibilities. Whatever may be the great 
revolutions and changes in society, they will ul- 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 401 

timately merge into one final struggle between 
Truth and Error, Light and Darkness, Liberty and 
Despotism, Christ and Antichrist. In America, 
Rome is making* vigorous efforts to regain her lost 
power. Her plan embraces the entire Western 
Continent. Her chosen field for special effort is 
North America ; her center of operation, the North- 
western States and Canada. Her plans have special 
reference to emigration, education, and an aggres- 
sive effort among the Indians and colored popula- 
tion. Her efforts are systematically directed against 
the Protestant Bible, free schools, and a democratic 
republic. In this Rome is aided by the Austrian 
and other despotic powers. A storm is gathering 
— dark clouds environ our horizon ; the Sun of 
Liberty sheds a feeble ray, while many Christians 
and patriots seem to apprehend no danger. 
God gave this country to our fathers as a Protes- 
tant land, in which to erect the Temple of Liberty. 
The Herculean work has been accomplished, 
and the temple stands, a monument of national 
glory, defying the earthquake and the tempest. 
. . Let not this glorious temple be defiled by 
sacrilegious hands. Let not its sacred shrines be 
trampled by the foot of despotism. Let it never be 
forgotten that "Eternal vigilance is the price of 
liberty."— Rev. J. G. White. 

The Pope Against the President. — Sherman's 
Views. — The controversy which sprung up over 
the late General Sherman's religious convictions 
on account of the zeal of his children, while the 

26 



402 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

General was in a comatose state, in bringing- in a 
priest of the Roman faith to apply the ante-mortem 
unction, has been a topic of considerable comment 
and conversation among the departed hero's per- 
sonal friends. The General never made any secret 
of his notions on religion. The strong Roman 
practices of members of his family caused him to 
be very decided in his expressions of hostility to 
the Roman Church, but beyond that he had no 
fixed views in matters of religious convictions or 
denominational details. In a conversation with 
the correspondent of the Enquirer when the General 
was at a white heat of indignation and disappoint- 
ment over his son's going into the Society of Jes- 
uits, the General said : "Oh, yes, lam disappoint- 
ed. I am more than that, I am angry; mad, very 
mad, all over. Mrs. Sherman and I agreed to dis- 
agree on that question. I had no objection to the 
girls being under their mother's influence, but I 
claimed the boys. Their mother was very devoted 
to the Church, and I never interfered with her in 
that matter, but I believe that loyalty belongs to 
the Government first. I do not want to say that a 
man cannot be a good American citizen and a loyal 
subject to the Pope. If there ever should be an is- 
sue affecting the safety of American institutions in 
conflict with the supremacy of the Roman Catholic 
Church, they will put the Pope above the President. 
We may not see it, and yet some living to-day may. 
I believe that our Constitution, with the institu- 
tions which have grown out of it, is the grandest 
heritage given to the human race. It is above 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 403 

creeds, because it owes no allegiance to any power 
save God and the people. Man is instinctively a 
religious animal, but an American does not want 
his religion mixed for him or filtered through some- 
body else as the custodian of his thoughts. That 
may do for the ignorant subjects of a foreign State, 
but it will not do for free-born, intelligent, self- 
confident American sovereigns — the people." — 
Washington correspondent in the Philadelphia 
Enquirer. 

The Jesuits. — What a strange condition is that 
of a man who employs his study, his reading, his 
meditation, his labors, his public and private dis- 
courses, to subvert the foundations of that edifice 
which Jesus Christ came to erect among mankind, 
and which He has cemented with His blood ! What 
a doctrine is that of a man, who presumes to call 
himself a guide of conscience, a pastor of a flock, 
an interpreter of Scripture, and who gives only 
false directions, who poisons the souls committed 
to his care, and darkens and tortures the Word of 
God! 

Jesus Christ, to confound the glosses of the false 
teachers of his time, said : "Ye have heard that it 
was said by them of old time" so and so : "but I 
say unto you" otherwise. The teachers of whom 
I speak use another language, and they say, you 
have heard that it was said by Jesus Christ, so and 
so : but I say to you otherwise. You have heard 
that it was said by Jesus Christ, " Search the 
Scriptures": but I say to you, that the Scriptures are 



404 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope. 

dangerous, and that only one order of men ought to 
see them. You have heard that it has been said in 
the inspired writings, i 'Prove all things" : but I say 
unto you, it is not for you to examine, but to sub- 
mit. You have heard that it has been said by Jesus 
Christ, that " the rulers over the Gentiles exercise 
lordship over them, but it shall not be so among 
you" : but I say unto you, that the Pontiff has a 
right to domineer not only over the Gentiles, but 
even over those who rule them. You have heard 
that it has been said, "Blessed are the dead which 
die in the Lord," that the soul of Lazarus "was 
carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom" : but 
I, I say unto you, that the dead pass from the mis- 
eries of this life, only into incomparably greater 
miseries in the flames of purgatory. — Saurins Ser- 
mons, Vol. 2, page 96. 

Romanism as it is.— 1. The Roman Catholic In- 
stitution, sometimes called the Holy, Apostolic, 
Catholic Church, is not now, nor was she ever, 
catholic, apostolic, or holy ; but is a sect in the 
fair import of that word, older than any other 
sect now existing ; not the Mother and Mistress of 
all Churches, but an apostasy from the only true, 
holy, apostolic, and catholic church of Christ. 

2. Her notion of apostolic succession is without 
any foundation in the Bible, in reason or in fact ; 
an imposition of the most injurious consequences, 
built upon unscriptural and antiscriptural tradi- 
tions, resting wholly upon the opinions of inter- 
ested and fallible men, 



Wh\t Gre\t Men have Said of Rome. 405 

3. She is not uniform in her faith, or united in 
her members ; but mutable and fallible, as any 
other sect of philosophy or religion — Jewish, Turk- 
ish, or Christian — a confederation of sects, under a 
politico-ecclesiastic head. 

4. She is the " Babylon" of John, the "man of 
sin" of Paul, and the empire of the "youngest 
horn" of Daniel's sea monster. 

5. Her notions of purg-atory, indulgences, auric- 
ular confession, remission of sins, transubstantia- 
tion, supererogation, etc., essential elements of her 
system, are immoral in their tendenc}^ and inju- 
rious to the well-being- of society, religious and 
political. 

6. Notwithstanding- her pretensions to have 
g-iven us the Bible, and faith in it, we are perfectly 
independent of her for our knowledg-e of that book, 
and its evidences of a divine origin. 

7. The Roman Catholic religion, if infallible 
and unsusceptible of reformation, as alleg-ed, is es- 
sentially anti-American, being- opposed to the 
genius of all free institutions, and positively sub- 
versive of them, opposing- the g-eneral reading- of 
the Scriptures and the diffusion of useful knowl- 
edg-e among- the whole community, so essential to 
liberty and the permanency of g-ood g-overnment. — 
Alexander Campbell affirmed these propositions in 
the discussion with Archbishop Purcell. 

The Roman Clergy. — Ah, we know you ! We 
know the clerical party. It is an old party. This 
it is, which has found for the truth those two mar- 



406 America or Home: Christ or the Pope. 

velous supporters, ignorance and error. This it is, 
which forbids to science and genius the going 
beyond the missal, and which wishes to cloister 
thought in dogmas. Every step which the intel- 
ligence of Europe has taken has been in spite of it. 
Its history is written in the history of human prog- 
ress, but it is written on the back of the leaf. It 
is opposed to it all. This it is, which put Campa- 
nella seven times to torture for saying that the 
number of worlds was infinite, and for having 
caught a glimpse at the secret of creation. This 
it is which persecuted Harvey for having proved 
the circulation of the blood. In the name of Jesus 
it shut up Galileo. In the name of St. Paul it im- 
prisoned Christopher Columbus. To discover a law 
of the heavens was an impiety, to find a world was 
a heresy. This it is which anathematized Pascal 
in the name of religion, Montaigne in the name of 
morality, Moliere in the name of both morality and 
religion. For a long time the human conscience 
has revolted against you and now demands of you : 
"What is it that you wish of me ?" For a long 
time already you have tried to put a gag upon the 
human intellect ; you wish to be the master of edu- 
cation, and there is not a poet, not an author, not 
a thinker, not a philosopher that 3-ou accept. All 
that has been written, said, found, dreamed,' 
deduced, inspired, imagined, invented by genius, 
the treasure of civilization, the venerable inherit- 
ance of generations, the common patrimony of 
knowledge, you reject. There is a book — a book 
which is from one end to the other an emanation 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 407 

from above ; a book which is for the whole world 
what the Koran is for Islamism ; what the Vedas 
are for India — a book which contains all human 
wisdom — a book which the veneration of the people 
call the Book — the Bible. Well, your censure has 
reached even that — unheard-of thing- ! Popes have 
proscribed the Bible. How astonishing- to wise 
spirits ; how overpowering- to simple hearts to see 
the fing-er of Rome placed upon the Book of God ! 
— Victor Hugo. 

The Jesuits. — The Church and court of Rome, 
since the remarkable period when so many king- 
doms and provinces withdrew from their jurisdic- 
tion, have derived more influence and support from 
the laborers of this sing-le order than from all their 
other emissaries and ministers, and all the various 
exertions of their power and opulence. It was this 
famous company which, spreading- itself with 
astonishing- rapidity over the greatest part of the 
habitable world, confirmed the wavering- nations in 
the faith of Rome, restrained the progress of the 
rising- sects, g-ained over a prodigious number of 
pagans in the most barbarous and i emote parts of 
the globe to the profession of popery, and attached 
the pretended heretics of all denominations by the 
affected softness and complying spirit which reigned 
in their conversation and manners, by their consum- 
mate skill and prudence in civil transactions, by 
their acquaintance with the arts and sciences, and 
a variety of other qualities and accomplishments. 
They insinuated themselves into the peculiar favor 



408 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

and protection of statesmen, persons of the first 
distinction, and even of crowned heads. Nor did 
anything- contribute more to give them a general 
ascendancy, than the cunning- and dexterity with 
which they relaxed and modified their system of 
morality, accommodating- it artfully to the propen- 
sities of mankind, and depriving- it, on certain occa- 
sions, of the severity that rendered it burdensome 
to the sensual and voluptuous. By this they sup- 
planted, in the palaces of the great, and in the courts 
of princes, the Dominicans and other rigid doctors, 
who formerly held there the tribunal of confession 
and the direction of consciences ; and engrossed to 
themselves an exclusive and irresistible influence 
in those retreats of royal grandeur, whence issue 
the councils that g-overn mankind. An order of 
this kind could not but be highly adapted to pro- 
mote the interests of the Court of Rome ; and this, 
indeed, was its great end, and the leading- purpose 
of which it never lost sight, employing everywhere 
its utmost vigilance and art to support the author- 
ity of the pontiffs, and to save them from the con- 
tempt of which they must have been naturally 
apprehensive, in consequence of a revolution that 
opened the eyes of a great part of mankind. — 
Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 2, page 55. 

The Amalgamation of Paganism and Chris- 
tianity. — Great is the difference between Chris- 
tianity under Severus and Christianity after Con- 
stantine. Many of the doctrines which at the 
later period were prominent, in the former were un- 



What Great Men have Said of Rome. 409 

known. As years passed on, the faith described by 
Tertullian was transmuted into one more fashion- 
able and more debased. It was incorporated with 
the old Greek mythology. Olympus was restored. 

. Not only was the adoration of Isis under a 
new name restored, but even her image, stand- 
ing" on the crescent moon, reappeared. The 
well-known effigy of that goddess with the infant 
Horus in her arms has descended to our day in 
the beautiful creations of the Madonna and Child. 

. The reign of Constantine marks the epoch 
of the transformation of Christianity from a re- 
ligion into a political system. . . . Let us see, 
in anticipation, to what a depth of intellectual deg- 
radation this policy of paganism eventually led. 
Heathen rites were adopted, a pompous and splen- 
did ritual, gorgeous robes, miters, tiaras, wax- 
tapers, processional services, lustrations, gold and 
silver vases, were introduced. Churches were built 
over the tombs of martyrs, and consecrated with 
rites borrowed from the ancient laws of the Roman 
Pontiffs. Festivals and commemorations of mar- 
tyrs multiplied with the numberless fictitious dis- 
coveries of their remains. Fasting became the 
grand means of repelling the devil and appeasing 
God, celibacy the greatest of the virtues. Pil- 
grimages were made to Palestine and the tombs of 
the martyrs. Quantities of dust and earth were 
brought from the Holy Land and sold at enormous 
prices, as antidotes against devils. The virtues 
of consecrated water were upheld. Images and 
relics were introduced into the churches, and wor- 



410 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

shiped after the fashion of the heathen gods. It 
was given out that prodigies and miracles were to 
be seen in certain places, as in the heathen times. 
The happy souls of departed Christians were in- 
voked ; it was believed that they were wandering" 
about the world, or haunting- their graves. There 
was a multiplication of temples, altars, and peni- 
tent garments. The festival of the Purification of 
the Virgin was invented to remove the uneasiness 
of heathen converts, on account of the loss of their 
feasts of Pan. The worship of images, of frag- 
ments of the cross, or bones, nails, and other relics, 
a true fetich worship, was cultivated. Two argu- 
ments were relied upon for the authenticity of these 
objects — the authority of the Church, and the 
working of miracles. Even the worn-out clothing 
of the saints and the earth of their graves were 
venerated. From Palestine were brought what 
were affirmed to be the skeletons of St. Mark, St. 
James, and other ancient worthies. The apotheo- 
sis of the old Roman times was replaced by canon- 
izing ; tutelary saints succeeded to local mythogical 
divinities. Then came the mystery of transubstan- 
tiation, or the conversion of bread and wine by the 
priest into the flesh and blood of Christ. As cen- 
turies passed, the paganization became more com- 
plete. Festivals sacred to the memory of the lance 
with which the Saviour's side was pierced, the nails 
that fastened him to the cross, and the crown of 
thorns, were instituted. — John Wm. Draper, in "Re- 
ligion and Science." 



HOW TO CONQUER THE ENEMY. 



I believe that one of the most pronounced enemies 
of the great principles of the Constitution of the 
United States is the Roman Catholic Church. We 
have already shown how she has assailed and 
renounced most of these principles All Protestants 
believe in our Constitution, and are determined to 
defend it. Over the word "union," in our Con- 
stitution, one of the most terrific wars the world 
has ever seen was fought. 

Rome is an Enemy to the Sovereignty of 
the People. 

Says the preamble to the Constitution: "We, 
the people of the United States, in order to promote 
a more perfect union, establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquility, provide for the common 
defense, promote the general welfare, and secure 
the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our poster- 
ity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for 
the United States of America." 

In Article VI. of the Constitution we find: "This 
Constitution, and the laws of the United States 
which shall be made in pursuance thereof, . . . 
shall be the supreme law of the land." 

(411) 



4i2 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

The Declaration of Independence declares that 
"Governments derive their just powers from the 
consent of the governed." 

These plain declarations declare the people of 
the United States to be the supreme source of polit- 
ical power — to be self-governing-. 

Many of the State constitutions announce the 
same doctrine ; as, for instance : "We, the people 
of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty 
God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings, 
do establish this constitution." 

Against this principle of our Government Rome 
announces the Pope as the supreme judge and 
invests him with supreme sovereignty. 

Pope Leo XIII. announces in one of his encycli- 
cals : " It is not lawful to follow one rule in private 
conduct and another in the governing of the state : 
to wit, that the authority of the Church should be 
observed in private life but rejected in state mat- 
ters." 

Rome's canon law declares the Pope has the right 
to annul state laws, treaties, etc. 

In essays on "Religion and Literature," edited 
by Cardinal Manning, we read, " Moreover the 
right of opposing kings is inherent in the supreme 
sovereignty which the Popes exercise over all 
Christian nations." 

Bishop Gilmour, in 1873, said: "Nationalities 
must be subordinate to religion, and we must learn 
that we are Catholics first and citizens next." 

The present Pope, in 1890, declared: "Politics 



How to Conquer the Enemy. 413 

. . . are inseparably bound up with the laws of 
morality and religious duties." 

The Boston Pilot, February 15th, 1890, announces 
the present Pope as saying we must render as "per- 
fect submission and obedience of will to the Church 
and the sovereign Pontiff as to God himself." 

Pius IX. states in his s}-llabus : "The Roman 
Church has a right to exercise its authority with- 
out any limit set to it by the civil power." 

Vicar General Preston said: "The man who 
takes his religion, but not his politics, from Rome, 
is not a good Catholic." 

The Catholic Weekly, of Albany, says: "Though 
we love our country dearly, we love our Church and 
the Pope more and more." 

L,eo XIII., in an encyclical, November, 1885, de- 
clares : "Every Catholic should rigidly adhere to 
the teachings of the Roman Pontiff, especially in 
the matter of modern liberty, which under the sem- 
blance of honesty of purpose, leads to harm and 
destruction." 

Father Hecker, in the Catholic World of 1870, says : 
"All legislation must be governed by the will of 
God, unerringly indicated by the Pope." 

Daniel O'Connell urges Catholics to do all in 
their "power to carry out the intentions of the 
Pope. Where you have the electoral franchise, 
give your votes to none but those who assist you 
in so holy a struggle." 

One of the generals of the Jesuits declared : " I 
govern all the world without anyone knowing how 
I do it." 



414 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Henry Brownson, in an address at the Baltimore 
Catholic Congress, stated : " If Catholics separate 
religion from politics, claiming that politics are 
independent of religion, how can the Church pro- 
duce any effects in support of popular govern- 
ment?" 

C. J. Bonaparte, at the same Congress, said : 
" Every Pope . . . must inflexibly assert that 
no living man is his rightful superior. ... If 
he admits that his liberty depends on the law, then 
to protect himself against changes in the law, he 
must use his only effective weapon, political agita- 
tion. ... It matters little if the Pope be an 
exile or a captive, a subject he cannot be. 
The Church needs now a chief ruler, who for what 
he does, or what he leaves undone, shall answer at 
no human judgment-seat." The same author de- 
clares : "The freedom of the Pope is an inalien- 
able right embraced in his divine commission, and 
for this right, the Pope has, and ever will have, 
the unwavering support of his spiritual children." 

M. F. Morriss, of Washington, D. C, gave out 
the following hope at the World's Columbian Cath- 
lic Congress : "Is it too much to hope that the 
time will come again when all the nations will 
agree, by common consent, to submit their contro- 
versies which they are unable to settle amicably 
between themselves, to a supreme court of the 
world, presided over by the Roman Pontiff? " The 
first sentence in the second resolution, at this same 
Congress, reads as follows : " We declare our devoted 



How to Conquer the Enemy. 415 

loyalty and unaltered attachment to our Holy 
Father, Pope Leo XIII." 

These numerous quotations, which could be mul- 
tiplied into a volume, assure us that the Pope 
claims the supreme sovereignty, and that all loyal 
Catholics support this claim. These statements 
are sufficient to convince any intelligent mind that 
Romanism is the enemy of the sovereignty of the 
people. 

Rome is an Enemy op our Religious Liberty. 

Our Constitution declares in its first Amendment, 
" Congress shall make no law respecting* an estab- 
lishment of religion or prohibiting" the free exercise 
thereof." 

Pius IX. declared it to be an error that "every 
man is free to embrace and profess the religion he 
shall believe true." 

Bishop O'Connor says: " Religious liberty is 
merely endured until the opposite can be carried 
into effect without peril to the Catholic world." 

The Shepherd of the Valley not many years ago, 
Rome's official organ of the Bishop of St. Louis, 
stated: "If Catholics ever obtain a sufficient 
numerical majority in this country, religious free- 
dom is at an end." 

The Boston Pilot announces that " no good gov- 
ernment can exist without religion, and there can 
be no religion without an Inquisition, which is 
wisely designed for the protection and promotion 
of the true faith." 

In the allocution of Pope Pius IX., September, 



416 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

1857, we read: "The Roman Catholic religion, 
with all its rights, ought to be exclusively domi- 
nant in such sort that all other worship should be 
banished and interdicted." 



Rome is an Enemy to Liberty of Conscience. 

The Constitution of the United States guarantees 
liberty of conscience ; nothing is dearer to our peo- 
ple. 

Pius IX., in an encyclical letter of December 8th, 
1864, condemns those who assert the liberty of con- 
science and of religious worship, and from another 
encyclical, August 15th, 1854, we take the follow- 
ing extract : "The absurd and erroneous doctrines, 
or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience, are 
a most pestilential error, a pest of all others, to be 
dreaded in the State." 

Said the Catholic World, January, 1870: "The 
Church is instituted, as every Catholic who under- 
stands his religion believes, to guard and defend 
the rights of God on earth against any and every 
enemy, at all times and in all places. She there- 
fore does not and cannot accept, or in any degree 
favor, liberty in the Protestant sense of liberty. 
My conscience is my church, the Catholic Church ; 
and any restriction of her freedom, or any act in 
violation of her rights, violates or abridges my 
right or freedom of conscience." 

Rome's attitude on this question being estab- 
lished, we shall next show that ; 



How to Conquer the Enemy. 417 

Rome is Opposed to Separation of Church 

and State. 

Our Constitution prohibits the establishment of a 
state religion. 

Pius IX. declares that it is an error to hold that 
"the church ought to be separate from the state 
and the state from the church." 

Says the Catholic World: "The state is just as 
much bound to respect, protect and defend the 
Catholic Church in her faith, her constitution, her 
discipline atid her worship, as if she were the only 
religious body in the nation." 

One of Rome's most enthusiastic speakers at the 
World's Columbian Catholic Congress, declared : 
"The Church does desire to influence human gov- 
ernment ; it does watch empires, kingdoms, repub- 
lics, or whatever be the form such corporations may 
take, with anxious eyes." 

Says Mr. J. D. Fulton : " Rome is organizing- an 
ag-gressive warfare upon the separation of the 
Church and the state. It was the hope of promot- 
ing - a union of church and state that made the red- 
robed cardinal desire the company'of a son of a 
Presbyterian minister, occupying* the position of 
President, in laying* the corner-stone of the Jesuit 
Colleg*e." 

We believe the Church of Christ is a divine in- 
stitution, and its mission is to preach the Gospel. 
We believe in the state, and claim it is a divine in- 
stitution, and its duties are to guarantee every sub- 



27 



418 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

ject liberty and protection. " There must be a free 
church in a free state ; the state, subject to justice ; 
the church, subject to Christ." 

Rome is an Enemy of the Oath of Natural- 
isation. 

The revised statutes of the United States de- 
clare : "The alien seeking- citizenship must make 
oath to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity 
to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereign- 
ty, in particular, that to which he has been subject." 

The Roman Catholic profession of faith, sanc- 
tioned by the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, 
contains the following - oath of allegiance to the 
Pope: "And I pledge and swear true obedience to 
the Roman Pontiff, Vicar of Jesus Christ, and suc- 
cessor of the blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles." 
Rome's canon law declares: "No oaths are to be 
kept if they are against the interests of the Church 
of Rome." 

There is an ex-judge in Toledo, who told me of a 
priest that made oath of allegiance to the United 
States, and the next Sunday stated to his church 
that he only did it to secure the right of suffrage, 
and that he wanted his people to understand that 
he was first loyal to the Pope. 

Rome is the Enemy of the Free Press. 

In one of the amendments to the Constitution we 
read :" Congress shall make no law. . . abridg- 
ing the freedom of speech or of the press." 

Pope Leo, in a letter of June 17th, 1885, informs 



How to Conquer the Enemy. 419 

us that obedience to the Pope is "a duty incum- 
bent upon all without exception," and "most 
strictly so upon journalists." 

Pius IX., 1864, condemned all who maintained 
the liberty of the press. Father Hecker, in the 
Catholic World, 1870, declares that Catholic authori- 
ties must control the utterances of the press. As 
we have devoted an entire chapter to this subject, 
further quotations are unnecessary. 

Rome is an Enemy of the Free Schools. 

One of the foundation-stones of our great coun- 
try is the public school. This institution is fos- 
tered by both national and state laws. The sylla- 
bus of Pope Pius IX. affirms that the Roman Cath- 
olic Church "has the right to deprive the civil au- 
thority of the entire right of the public schools." 
Cardinal Antonelli, January 1st, 1870, writing in 
behalf of Pope Pius IX., on the subject of free edu- 
cation and worship, states "Both of these princi- 
ples are contrary to the laws of the Church." The 
Western Tablet, of Chicago, informed the Catholic 
laity that "if your son or daughter is attending a 
state school you are violating your duty as a Cath- 
olic parent, and conducing to the everlasting- de- 
spair and anguish of your child." The following is 
taken from one of the resolutions of the World's 
Columbian Catholic Congress : " We must continue 
to use our best efforts to increase and strengthen our 
parochial schools and colleges. . . . It is the 
sense of this Congress, therefore, that Catholic 
education should be steadfastly upheld, according 



420 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

to the decrees of the Council of Baltimore and the 
decisions of the Holy See." They passed no reso- 
lution supporting- our public schools — far from it. 
As we have devoted a chapter to this subject, 
further citations are unnecessary. 

Rome is an Enemy of Progress. 

All Protestants believe in progress and develop- 
ment, in advancing- to a hig-her standard in com- 
merce, education, morality and religion. Says 
Pius IX. in his syllabus, "It is an error to believe 
that the Roman Pontiff can and oug-ht to reconcile 
himself to and agree with progress, liberalism and 
civilization, as lately introduced." Can it be pos- 
sible that Rome would take us back to the decree of 
Pope Urban XIII., who said, " In the name and by 
the authority of Jesus Christ, the plenitude of 
which resides in his Vicar, the Pope, we declare 
that the teaching- that the earth is not the centre 
of the world, and that it moves with a diurnal mo- 
tion, is absurd, philosophically false, and erroneous 
in faith." 

Mr. Mackenzie, in the Nineteenth Century, says : 
"Once Rome could prevent progress, now she can 
but curse it. Rome has entered on a mortal con- 
test with forces which are universal and irresisti- 
ble. She has undertaken to arrest and turn back 
the mig-htiest power on earth. She has announced 
resistance to the laws of Providence — silent, pa- 
tient, but undeviating-. Nothing less than shame- 
ful defeat can result from such an enterprise. . . . 



How to Conquer the Enemy. 421 

If Rome is unable to reconcile herself to modern 
civilization, her decline and fall are inevitable." 

Rome is an Enemy of Protestantism. 

A Protestant is one who denies the authority of 
the Pope and holds to the right of private judg- 
ment in matters of religion. The chief features of 
Protestantism are : the supremacy of the Bible, 
justification by faith, individual responsibility, and 
freedom of conscience, of education and of worship. 
Now let us see in what utter contempt Rome holds 
these principles. Archbishop Ireland, at the Cen- 
tenary Celebration, said : "As a religious system, 
Protestantism is . . . utterly valueless as a 
doctrinal or moral power." H. F: Brownson, of 
Detroit, at the Baltimore Catholic Congress, said : 
" The American system is also anti-Protestant, and 
must either reject Protestantism or be overthrown 
by it." Father Fidelis stated at the dedication of 
Rome's University at Washington, "Protestantism 
has had its day, and is passing, as all human sys- 
tems of philosophy or religion must surely pass." 

Archbishop Ireland says: "The great work 
which in God's providence the Catholics of the 
United States are called upon to do within 
the coming century is to make America Catholic, 
and to solve for the Church Universal the all- 
absorbing problem with which the age confronts 
her," and he then tells us, " The Catholic Church 
is the sole living and enduring Christian authority. 
She has the power to speak ; she has an organiza- 
tion by which her laws may be enforced." I wonder 



422 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

if he here alludes to Rome's numerous secret socie- 
ties, that are so well organized, and armed and 
drilled for any contest that may come.* If this is 
the purpose of the Roman Catholic Church, and if 
this is the spirit that Archbishop Ireland endeav- 
ored to instill into the members of the Catholic 
Congress, then, my friends, look out for a conflict — 
a conflict between the principles of our Government 
and those of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Dr. Brownson tells us : "Undoubtedly it is the 
intention of the Pope to possess this country. In 
this intention he is aided by the Jesuits and all the 
Catholic prelates and priests." The Catholic World 
asserts : " The Roman Catholic Church cannot ac- 
cept or in any degree favor liberty in the Protes- 
tant sense of liberty." The New York Tablet tells 
us : " Protestants have no authority in religion and 
count for nothing in the Church of God." 

In the secret plans of the Jesuits we find the fol- 
lowing: " That this secret hate be combined with 
great activity in endeavoring to detach the faith- . 
ful from every government inimical to us and em- 
ploy them ... to strike deadly blows at here- 
sy." We read in the Memorial of the Captivity of 
Napoleon: "Wherever the Jesuits are admitted, 
they will be masters, cost what it may. Their 
society is by nature dictatorial, and therefore it is 
the enemy of all constituted authority." We are 
told in the same book, "Every act, every crime, 
however atrocious, is a meritorious work, if com- 
mitted for the interests of the society of the 

*See Appendix 14. 



How to Conquer the Enemy. 423 

Jesuits." This agrees with the doctrine of St. 
Thomas Aquinas, one of their celebrated theolo- 
gians : "Though heretics must be tolerated, not 
because they deserve it, we must bear with them, 
till, by a second admonition, they may be brought 
back to the faith of the Church ; but those who, 
after a second admonition, remain obstinate in 
their errors, must not only be excommunicated, but 
they must be delivered to the secular power to be 
exterminated." 

In one of Rome's books on rites and ceremonies, 
"Pontificale Romanum," is the bishop's oath, in 
which are the following words : ' k Heretics, schis- 
matics and rebels to our said Lord, or his aforesaid 
successors, I will to my utmost persecute and op- 
pose." This portion of the oath is now kept from 
the public when the bishop swears allegiance to 
the Pope.* 

Judging by the foregoing extracts from Rome's 
highest authorities, nothing could be more evident 
than that Rome is the open and avowed enemy of 
our Government, and that if the principles of Rome 
prevail here our Constitution must fail. 

This enemy claims that the temporal powers must 
obey the spiritual ; the Church has power to grant 
or take away temporal possessions ; the Church has 
the right to practice the censure of books and the 
press. The Pope has the right to amend state laws 
and constitutions, to absolve from obedience there- 
to, when opposed to the Church ; the right to ab- 
solve from oaths and to annul all legal relations of 

*See Appendix 15. 



424 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

those in marriage ; to persecute heretics, and to 
absolve from sin, etc. 

We have shown that Rome is the enemy of the 
sovereignty of the people, of religious liberty, of 
liberty of conscience and of the liberty of the press. 
She is opposed to the separation of church and 
state ; opposed to the oath of naturalization ; op- 
posed to our free schools. She is the foe of prog- 
ress, of Protestantism and of our Bible societies. 
In short she is the implacable enemy of America, 
whose overthrow she has plotted. 

Suppose that in America there were ten million 
Chinamen who were taking Rome's attitude toward 
our Government. Suppose they attacked and de- 
nounced every principle of American liberty. Sup- 
pose they announced that they were organized, and 
were determined to obtain the supremacy of our 
country. Suppose they were continually swearing 
allegiance to a former Emperor. How long would 
loyal American citizens permit this treason? One 
of two things is certain : they would soon be com- 
pelled to leave this country, or to render allegiance 
to the Government. They would have to renounce 
the foreign potentate or leave the country. Should 
not the same rule hold good when applied to Rome? 
The Jesuits have been expelled from nearly every 
country in Europe, and shall we now permit them, 
to suck the life-blood from this nation? Shall we 
allow our liberties to be devoured by this Roman 
vulture? Is there no remedy ? Is there no balm in 
Gilead ? Is there no help ? Must we continue to 



How to Conquer the Enemy. 425 

suffer these abuses ? May we not hope to find the 
remedy in one or all of the following - measures ? 

1. Organization. 

Rome is an organized power. She can be most 
effectually met by organization. In union there is 
strength. In cooperation there is power. In or- 
ganized work there is victory. We should come 
together as individuals and organize, that we may 
stand united in our efforts to conquer the enemy. 
States are organized into empires. Many short 
railroad lines are organized into an immense sys- 
tem. Business men organize for business. Political 
parties organize for more effectual work. Manu- 
facturers organize to further their interests. Labor- 
ing men organize to protect their rights. When 
Christ fed the multitude He had them seated in com- 
panies by hundreds and by fifties ; He completed an 
organization of twelve men that turned the world 
upside down. There is much unused power among 
the Protestants because they lack organization. 
By this power, our labors can be controlled and 
centralized. It will be an economy of resources. 

It will be a conservation of energy. As Protes- 
tants, we agree upon the fundamental principles of 
our Government. As Protestants we want no 
divided kingdom, but a focusing of all of our forces 
for the preservation of our institutions. This will 
hasten the victory. 

2. A Union of Christian People. 

God's people must lay aside their private opin- 
ions and petty jealousies, and work together against 



426 America or Kome: Christ or the Pope. 

the powers of darkness. Cooperation in poorer 
methods is better than division in better methods. 
We are told that "one shall chase a thousand and 
two shall put ten thousand to flight." An organ- 
ized army of ten thousand can put to flig-ht an un- 
organized army of ten times that number. Rome 
laughs at our divisions. This is our greatest weak- 
ness. Our many denominations are an undeniable 
evil. Is there no ground upon which we may unite ? 
Is there no foundation upon which we may stand 
as a united body ? Do we not agree upon the great 
fundamental principles of Christianity ? Do we not 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the liv- 
ing God ? As a basis of union, is not this the cen- 
tral idea? Is not this of Divine authority? This 
foundation is broad enough for every true believer. 
This is the foundation that God laid. It is the 
foundation of the prophets and apostles. Faith in 
Christ, and obedience to His will, I believe, will 
eventually settle every question, and restore to the 
Word of God its proper place and make it the only 
rule of faith and practice. In short, this founda- 
tion will substitute the Bible, for human creeds ; 
facts, for definitions ; things, for words ; faith, for 
speculation; unity of faith, for unity of opinion; 
the commandments of God, for human traditions ; 
piety, for ceremony ; godliness, for formality ; 
Christianity, for partizan zeal ; the practice of 
Christianity, for the mere profession of it ; Christ 
for the Pope. 

It seems to me, that to this end we must labor. 
Let us exalt Christ ; let us preach the whole Christ, 



How to Conquer the Enemy. 427 

the tender-hearted, miracle-working-, sympathetic 
teacher of humanity. Let us preach Him as the 
crucified and risen Lord, as sitting- at the rig-ht 
hand of God the Father. Let us preach Him as 
the sole fountain of authority, the sum and sub- 
stance of our faith, the all in all of our salvation, 
the beginning- and the end, the first and the last. 

Upon this basis I believe we shall eventually 
arrive : one Lord, one faith, one baptism ; one 
Bible, one name, one hope, one Spirit, one God, the 
Father of all, who is above you all and in you all. 

3. Teix the Truth. 

Tell what you know about Romanism ! Uncover 
its pollutions ! Make known the scandal of the 
confessional ! Tell what you know about the con- 
vents and nunneries ! Expose the conduct of the 
celibate priesthood ! Publish what you know about 
her intrig-ues and purposes ! Every effort you put 
forth will subtract from Rome's power. Every 
truth spoken will streng-then Christianity and op- 
pose Romanism. Think how Luther and Melanch- 
thon, Knox, and William of Orang-e, told the 
truth. They told it in huts, palaces, churches, 
towns and cities. Every Protestant man and wo- 
man in the North and South, in the East and West, 
must as individuals, come up to the help of the 
Lord ag-ainst the mig-hty. Proclaim the truth. 
Agitation is needed. No reform is ever broug-ht 
about by keeping - silent. You owe it to your coun- 
try and to your God to speak out upon this ques- 
tion. God is for the truth. You are an instrument 



428 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

in the hands of God to attest the truth that God 
will help them that work for Him, and that He will 
bless the truth wherever it is spoken. "Ye shall 
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 

4. Create and Distribute Literature that 
will Expose Rome. 

Our people need to be educated upon this ques- 
tion. Knowledge is power. Give wings to knowl- 
edge. Let its noise be heard. It will arouse the 
energies and enlist the sympathies of millions who 
are asleep. Christ must be preached. The Pope 
must be antagonized. Politicians must have their 
eyes opened. Men of courage must take a stand. 
Urge the pulpit, the press and the platform to sup- 
port the principles of our Government against the 
encroachments of Rome. Urge Catholics to read 
the Bible. It is God's inspired book. It is against 
Rome. Wherever this book is clearly read and men 
are taught to think for themselves, Rome loses her 
grasp. Let the open Bible tell of its treasures to 
the poor and deluded Romanist. If he has no Bible, 
give him one. If he possesses no book that teaches 
him the real purposes of Romanism, either give or 
lend him one. Let a million men do this, and keep 
on doing* it, and there will be such a mighty senti- 
ment created in this country against Rome that her 
power will soon begin to fade. 

5. Use your Influence at the Ballot-Box. 

" It is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we 
are underlings." Mark every man that panders to 



How to Conquer the Enemy. 429 

Rome. Know the principles of every office-seeker. 
Before you cast your vote, know beyond the shadow 
of a doubt the principles of the aspirant to the 
office. Especially look well to your school boards 
and law-makers. Votes count. Rome moves 
solidly, so says one of her archbishops, for the 
party that will promote her interests. Then it is 
your duty to lay aside party politics and vote solid- 
ly for the party that is against Rome. This is a 
national question, and it will have to be fought out 
either in the pulpit, school, press and ballot-box, 
or upon the battle-field. 

Keep in Sight the Plea of Protestantism. 

" A Protestant," says the Standard Dictionary, 
"is a member of one of those bodies of Christians 
that adhere to Protestantism as opposed to Roman 
Catholicism : in general, a Christian who denies 
the authority of the Pope and holds to the right of 
private judgment in matters of religion." 

The term was first applied to the adherents of 
Luther, who protested against a decree that in- 
volved a submission to the authority of the Roman 
Catholic Church. In short, a Protestant is one 
who protests against Rome ; one who turns away 
from Romanism to Christianity, from man-made 
creeds to the Word of God, from the Pope to 
Christ. 

Protestants who lose sight of these facts weaken 
the cause of Protestantism. These facts and prin- 
ciples should always be kept in view, and on them 
all Protestants should stand firmly and be consis- 



430 America, or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

tent. When men are led to believe that Romanism 
is about as good as New Testament Christianity, 
their influence for the cause that we so earnestly 
plead is hurtful. 

When they begin to fawn upon Romanism and 
to seek her favors, they are laying - the axe at the 
root of Protestantism. It is like the Christian who 
falls in with the world ; he imbibes its notions and 
adjusts himself to its ways. 

Conformity to the spirit and intentions of Rome, 
and losing* sight of the great principles of the 
Reformation, is the deplorable weakness of the 
Protestants of our country. When this spirit of 
indifference to our distinctive plea becomes mani- 
fest, danger from Rome becomes imminent. 

Protestant people are like the man in the hotel, 
who when awakened in the night by the cry of fire, 
turned over in the bed, and after assuring himself 
that the walls were still cold, went to sleep again. 
O Protestants, forget not the principles of your 
ancestors ! Those principles are divine. They 
must be proclaimed from every hilltop and tower. 
There must be a revival of protesting against 
Rome — protesting against her intrigues, encroach- 
ments, and practices. 
Lastly : 

Personal Consecration to the Work. 

Every man that reads this, has a work to do 
against Rome ; and if he does not do it, it will not 
be done. He has an influence to exert, and if he 
does not exert it, it will not be exerted. He has a 



How to Conquer the Enemy. 431 

word to say, and if he does not say it, it will not be 
said. 

There is a great demand for consecrated energy. 
There is power in consecrated life. We should 
have convictions and stand by them. We should 
have principles and stand upon them. We should 
speak the truth and spurn the consequences. We 
should stand by the right in the face of criticism. 
To the great work of instructing* humanity, of 
purifying- politics, of protesting" against the en- 
croachments of Rome, of calling- God's people out 
of Babylon, of preserving - the freedom of our pub- 
lic institutions, of advocating- the principles of 
Protestantism — in short, of preaching- the Gospel of 
Christ, every Christian should reconsecrate the 
energies of his body, the affections of his heart, 
the faculties of his mind and the attributes of his 
soul. 

Let us do our duty while it is to-day. Let us do 
our work lovingly, yet boldly, and when we lay 
aside our garments our children will take up our 
work and become defenders of the right, stormers 
of abuses, reformers of wrong, heralders of liberty, 
advocates of the truth, ministers of the gospel, 
and men of God ; and our country will be free and 
independent, and our schoolhouses will stand as the 
lighthouses of universal knowledge, our press will 
be pure and untrammeled, our flag will float over 
land and sea as the grandest emblem of a liberty- 
loving people, and the Christ will be accepted as 
the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. 



THE GROWTH OF ROMANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The numerous adherents of the Roman Catholic 
Church give it great power. As the Romanists 
increase in numbers, the} 7 increase in power and in 
zeal. The majority of Protestants are unaware of 
the rapid growth of Romanism in our midst. They 
think that her losses through the influence of our 
free institutions. are sufficient to offset her gains. 
Truly, her losses are heavy, but they are not the 
gain of Protestantism. 

Romanists are taught to believe that there is no 
salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church, and, 
therefore, but few of those who lose confidence ex- 
amine the Protestant faith ; consequently the ma- 
jority sink into skepticism. For this reason, Ro- 
manism is mainly responsible for the skepticism of 
Europe. Infidelity amongst Christian nations is 
the legitimate child of Rome. Once the papal 
authority is thrown off, the widest liberty is exer- 
cised, and the victim becomes an easy prey to un- 
belief. Notwithstanding the many thousands of 
Romanists who have apostatized in the United 
States, her numbers are increasing with great ra- 
pidity. 

Her Present Membership. 

The estimates as to her numbers vary. Cardinal 
Gibbons places the number in the United States at 

(432) 



Growth of Bomaxism in the U. S. 433 

nine million ; Bishop Hoganof Missouri at thirteen 
million ; Edmund F. Dunne, at the Catholic Con- 
gress, 1889, said: "We have twelve million Catho- 
lics now, and of them the end is not yet." 

But perhaps the most reliable statistics of Cath- 
olicity are those given on pag-e 378 of Sadlier's 
History of the United States: "The Catholic 
Church in the United States now numbers fourteen 
archbishops, one being - a cardinal, seventy-three 
bishops, more than nine thousand priests, over 
twelve thousand churches, fifty-four theological 
seminaries, one hundred and thirty-eig-ht colleges, 
more than six hundred academies, three thou_ 
sand five hundred parish schools, and six hundred 
charitable institutions. The Catholic laity include 
about ten million." 

In 1800 there were one hundred thousand Roman 
Catholics in the United States ; there was then, 
one Romanist to every fifty-three of the population; 
in 1850, one to fourteen ; in 1890, one to six and 
one-half. The Roman Catholic Church has in- 
creased more rapidly than our population. Its rate 
of growth has been more rapid than that of the 
Protestant churches. 

Josiah Strong- says: "From 1800 to 1880 the 
population increased ninefold, the membership of 
all Evangelical churches twenty-seven-fold, and the 
Romanist population sixty-three-fold. From 1850 
to 1880 the population increased 185 per cent., and 
the Romanist population 294 per cent.; during- the 
same period the number of Evang-elical churches 
increased 125 per cent., and the number of Evan- 

28 



434 America or Rome: Christ or the Popk 

gelical ministers 173 per cent., while the Roman 
Catholic Churches increased 447 per cent., and the 
priests 381 per cent." 

In 1800 the Roman Catholic population was 21 
per cent, of the number of Evangelical church-mem- 
bers ; in 1850, 45 per cent. ; in 1890, 75 per cent. 

The census for 1890 gave the number of commu- 
nicants in the Evangelical churches as thirteen 
million four hundred thousand. Sadlier's history 
gave the Roman population as ten million. 

Her growth is significant. She believes the West 
is to dominate the nation, and she has determined 
to dominate the West by concentrating her forces 
there. There are six Western States in which 
there are four times as many Romanists as Prot- 
estant . church-members. I have traveled exten- 
sively through every State and Territory in the 
West. I spent six years in that country, and I 
know that the Jesuits, with their churches and 
schools, are everywhere, and are now an over- 
whelming evil. 

Rev. Mr. Warren, writing from California, said : 
" They are at work, night and day, to break down 
the institutions of the country, beginning with the 
public schools. As surely as we live, so surely 
will the conflict come, and it will be a hard one." 

Means by which Rome Increases her 
Membership. 

1 . Immigration. — This has been her greatest 
means of increase. Roman Catholic congregations 
are largely made up of foreigners and their chil- 



Growth of Romanism in the U. S. 435 

dren and grandchildren ; the majority of our immi- 
grants for the past fifty years have been Roman 
Catholics. 

S. W. Barnum claims that seven-eig"hths of all 
who come to our shores from Ireland are Romanists, 
and one-half the immigrants from German} 7 - are of 
the same faith. That immigration has been the 
principal source of Roman Catholic increase in the 
United States, is conceded by both Protestants and 
Romanists, so further citation of statistics is un- 
necessary. 

2. Family Increase. — The Catholic World boasts 
that "Catholic families increase much faster than 
others." The majority of Roman Catholics belong- 
to the laboring" class, and are decidedly more vigor- 
ous than the non-laboring* class. Dr. Mattison 
says : "In Roman Catholic families there are four 
or five children, while in the average non-Catholic 
family but two or three." There is no doubt that 
the priests use both the pulpit and the confessional 
as a means of inculcating upon the married the 
duty of multiplying- and increasing- the race. 

3. Mixed Marriages. — In the majority of cases 
when a Romanist and Protestant marry, it general- 
ly turns out to the advantag-e of the Catholic 
Church. The children of such marriag-es are 
g-enerally broug-ht up Catholics, and frequently the 
Protestant parent becomes a Catholic. 

4. Conversion of Protestants. — These are numer- 
ous. Her educational establishments are the prin- 
cipal instrumentalities in winning- Protestants. 
Special effort is made to attract the children of 



436 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Protestants to these schools, in order to convert 
them to Romanism. Those in charge of the 
schools declare the non-interference with the reli- 
gion of the pupils, and though coercion may not be 
used, yet sufficient influence is exerted to bring 
about the conversion of seven-tenths of the Prot- 
estants thus educated. 

The Sisters declare they make no effort to con- 
vert Protestant children, but facts speak for them- 
selves. Their text-books are smirched with Roman 
Catholic doctrines ; in many schools, frequent and 
systematic instruction is given to Catholic children 
in the presence of Protestant children ; books on 
Catholic doctrine are frequently placed in the hands 
of Protestant children, and the exceptional kind- 
ness of the nuns becomes a most persuasive and 
convincing argument to win them to Romanism. 

The daughter of Winfield Scott was educated in 
a convent in Montreal, and consequently became a 
Romanist. Thirty-eight out of forty Protestant 
girls that were sent at one time to a convent in 
Montreal became Catholics. I am personally ac- 
quainted with five young ladies, all Protestants, 
who attended one of their institutions in Indiana, 
and strenuous efforts were made to convert every 
one of them to Romanism. A lady in the city of 
Toledo, who spent two years in a convent in the 
District of Columbia, told me that during those 
two years, she knew more than two hundred Prot- 
estant girls were converted to Romanism in that 
one convent. Rev. F. N. Walcott says : " I knew 
of four young ladies, daughters of prominent Prot- 



Growth of Romanism in the U. S. 437 

estants who resided in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 
who attended St. Joseph's Convent in St. Paul, and 
as a result three of them became Catholics." 

Such instances are common. Will Protestants 
ever take warning - , and keep their children out of 
these proselyting- institutions, and will they ever 
cease contributing- of their funds for the building 
of them ? 

Other methods of winning- Protestants, through 
missions, political influences and the g-iving- of 
money alleg-ed to have been surrendered throug-h 
the confessional, we shall not consider. 

Rome's losses in the country will probably "not be 
so great in the future as they have been in the 
past. The main cause of her loss has been the 
public school, and now she is able to overcome this 
through the establishment of thousands of paro- 
chial schools and academies. On this subject Mr. 
Strong- says: "The now pronounced parochial 
school system policy can hxrdly fail to keep great 
numbers in the Roman communion, which through 
the broadening- influence of the public school would 
have left it, thus greatly stimulating- the growth of 
the Church in the future.'' 

In this article we have discussed the numerical 
strength of Rome in the United States. Her polit- 
ical and social streng-th are equally as great. 
Father Hecker prophesied that the present g-ene- 
tation would see the Roman Catholics as numerous 
in tnis country as the Protestants. Their motive 
is to control our country, and they are using- their 
utmost exertions to bring- about that result, 



438 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

A writer in the Forum, April, 1888, in speaking 
of the Jubilee of Leo XIII., says: "The Pope 
entering- St. Peter's, adorned with the tiara sent 
him by Emperor William, descendant of Luther, 
using- the basin and ewer of Queen Victoria, the 
successor of Elizabeth, wearing on his finger the 
ring- presented to him by the Sultan, and carrying 
a bound copy of the United States Constitution 
presented by President Cleveland, was indeed a 
strang-e spectacle, calling to mind the pantheism 
of the Roman Empire, which admitted the worship 
of all g-ods in the Pantheon of Agrippa." 

Rome, disappointed in Europe, has turned her 
eye toward America. Pope Gregory XVI. said : 
''Out of the Roman States there is no country 
where I am Pope, except the United States." 

Archbishop Ireland said at the Centenary Cele- 
bration of the Catholic Church : "Let me state, as 
I conceive it, the great work which in God's Prov- 
idence the Catholics in the United States are called 
to do in the coming- century. It is twofold : to 
make America Catholic, and to solve for the 
Church Universal the all-absorbing problem with 
which the age confronts us. I doubt if ever since 
that century, the dawn of which was the glimmer 
from the eastern star, there was prepared for Cath- 
olics of any nation of earth a work so grandlyl 
noble in its nature, and pregnant with such mighty 
consequences. The work gives the measure of our 
responsibility. Our work is to make America Cath- 
olic. If we love America, if we love the Church, 
to mention the work suffices. Our cry shall be 



Growth of Romanism in the U. S. 439 

'God wills it,' and our hearts shall leap with Cru- 
sader enthusiasm. We know the Church is the 
sole owner of the truths and graces of salvation, 
. the sole living- and enduring Christian 
authority. She has the power to speak ; she has 
an org-anization by which her laws may be enforced. 
The American people must look to her to maintain 
for them in the consciences of citizens, the princi- 
ples of natural equity and of law, without which 
a self-governing- people will not exist, falling ul- 
timately in chaotic anarchy or becoming a prey to 
ambitious despotism." 

Henry F. Brownson, of Detroit, stated at the 
Catholic Congress (November, 1889) : "The Amer- 
ican system is also anti-Protestant, and must either 
reject Protestantism or be overthrown by it. Based 
on natural law and justice, our institutions are in- 
compatible with a religion claimed to be revealed, 
but which fails to harmonize the natural and the 
supernatural." 

At the dedication of the Catholic University at 
Washington, D. C, Father Fidelis said: "We 
may safely say the present age is one of unusual 
and momentous hesitation. Old things have passed 
away — what shall be the resultant of the new 
sources which have already gone into operation? 
Whether to be Christian [t. e Catholic], this is the 
question which is confronting- our modern society ; 
this is the problem which is being- silently worked 
out in many minds, which looms up behind all po- 
litical quarrels, and lies deeper than all social 
questions or the disputes of capital and labor. 



440 America or Home: Christ or the Pope. 

Whether to go off into final apostasy, or to cling* 
still to the shreds of hope which flutter towards us 
from the torn garments of the past." 

What shall we say about these bold statements ? 
What shall we say about the avowed purpose of 
Rome "to make America Catholic" ? What shall 
we say about this increasing* power? Or rather, 
what shall we say about the indifference of Protes- 
tants, who are picnicking on a slumbering volcano ? 
Have we lost the patriotic blood of our forefathers ? 
Have we lost our love for liberty ? Are we too 
weak in body, mind and spirit to speak out upon 
this question ? Are we not bold enough to expose 
Rome's methods and Rome's purpose ? Shall we 
permit Rome and those, who toady to Rome, to 
mold public opinion, and close the mouths of pa- 
triotic Christians ? Let us preach the gospel of 
civil liberty and religious liberty, and that will set 
us free from the power of Rome and the power of 
sin. Christ has well said: "Ye shall know the 
truth, and the truth shall make you free." 




Enticing to the Convent. 



CONVENT LIFE ILLUSTRATED. 



In this chapter we give some illustrated scenes 
from convent life : 

Enticing to a Convent. 

It was considered a great duty to exert ourselves 
to influence novices in favor of the Roman Catholic 
religion ; and different nuns, were, at different 
times, charged to do what they could by conversa- 
tions to make favorable impressions on the minds 
of some who were particularly indicated to us by 
the Superior. I often heard it remarked, that 
those who were influenced with the greatest diffi- 
culty, were young- ladies from the United States ; 
and on some of those, great exertions were made. — 
''Secrets of the Black Nunnery Revealed," Maria 
Monk, pag-e 98. 

Experiences of a Candidate — Scrubbing 
the Floors. 

I was chosen to perform the most distasteful and 
laborious work in the convent. The manner of the 
sisters changed from the sweet, g-entle beings they 
at first seemed, to harsh, unkind, tyrannical task- 
masters. I found among- them every nationality 
and disposition. I was never accustomed to un- 
kindness, therefore I was extremely sensitive, and 
deeply wounded by the least unkind look or word. 
I could not please the sisters, no matter how much 
I would trv. In the dormitories I would labor two 

(442) 




Experience in a Convent. 
Copyright, 1895. 



444 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

or three hours, making- beds, etc., and the sister in 
charge, without any provocation, would compel me 
to undo my work, and then remake them, while she 
would remain standing- over me, with as much 
severity in manner and tone as a slaveholder would 
display towards a slave. Also in the kitchen, re- 
fectory, and laundry, everything- I did the sisters 
termed half done, althoug-h I was confident that in 
many respects my work was well done. 

I was one day commanded to scrub with a brush 
and sand, on my knees, the larg-e study hall. Such 
work was new to me, therefore most laborious. 
Nevertheless I performed my task in the best man- 
ner I knew how. Moreover, being- of a delicate 
org-anization, it was accomplished with great pain 
and difficulty, and consequently took me a long* 
time to complete it. When my task was nearl} 7 
finished, the novice mistress appeared and in a 
furious manner chided me for my laziness; snatched 
the brush from me with such violence as to tear 
the skin from the palm of my hand, at the same 
time throwing- a pail of water over the hall, and 
thereby compelling- me to rescrub the hall in less 
time than it could usually be performed by a woman 
familiar with such work all her life, while the task 
was rendered next to unendurable by the pain of 
my hands, which were torn and bleeding. 

This is a small specimen of the trials which 
awaited me : it was but the beginning of sorrows. 
—"Edith O'Gorman," page 23. 

Hands in a Pot of Lime. 

On another occasion, I was obliged to wash all 
the pots and kettles, and scour all the knives and 
forks in the establishment. My hands, which were 
natural^ very soft and white, began to look soiled 
and dirty. Having remarked in my simplicit}' to 
Sister Margaret, the housekeeper, "Indeed, sister, 




Scene in a Convent. 
Copyright, 1895. 



446 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

I am now ashamed of my hands," she sharply 
returned, "Well, thin, I'll be afther making- ye 
more ashamed of 'em." Accordingly she called 
me out into another room where a sister was white- 
washing 1 the walls, and commanded me to dip my 
hands into a pot of hot lime. I hesitated a mo- 
ment, thinking certainly she could not mean it ; 
however I was soon convinced of her earnestness 
by her harsh tone, "None of yer airs, now ; but do 
as I bid ye, or I'll tell the mother of ye." I put my 
hands down into the hot lime, and she held them 
there some minutes. For several weeks my hands 
were in a most pitiable condition. The skin would 
crack and bleed every moment, causing me to suf- 
fer the most excruciating pain, and yet I was forced 
to wash and hang out clothes in the frost and cold 
of December, the skin from my bleeding hands 
often peeling off and adhering to the frozen gar- 
ments. Of course they presented a most shocking 
appearance, their smoothness and whiteness gone; 
they were red, swollen, and chapped. I made no 
complaint, but bore that penance in silence, re- 
marking to a sympathizing candidate that I justly 
merited it for being so proud and vain of my hands. 
— " Edith O'Gorman." 

Taking the Veil. 
My superiors soon became satisfied that my voca- 
tion for the religious life was from God, and the 
mother held me up to the novices as a model of 
simplicity, humility, and docilit}^. Finally, on the 
first of January, 1863, my hair, of which I was 
once very proud, was shorn from my head, and I 
was clothed in the brown habit of the novice, re- 
ceiving the name of Sister Teresa de Chantal, by 
which I was from thenceforth to be known. — 
41 Edith O'Gorman," page 26. 

The concourse of people that assembled on this 
occasion was very great. The interest created by 




Taking the Veii,. 



448 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

the apparent voluntary retirement from the world 
of one so young", so wealthy, and so beautiful, was 
intense, and accordingly the chapel in which I 
preached was filled to overflowing with the nobility 
and fashionables of that section of the country. 
Many and large were the tears that were shed, when 
this beautiful young lady cut off the rich and flow- 
ing tresses of hair. Reader, have you ever seen the 
description which Eugene Sue, in his "Wandering 
Jew," gives of the lustrous, luxurious, and rich 
head of hair, worn by Charlotte de Cardoville, and 
shorn from her head by Jesuits under the pretense 
that she was insane ? If you have not, take the 
"Wandering 1 Jew," turnover its pages till you find 
it, and you will see a more accurate description of 
that shorn from the head of a young lad}' to whom 
I allude, than I can possibly give. — " Popish Nun- 
neries," by William Hogan, p. 15. 

First Night in Convent. 

This is not home ! 
And yet for this I left my girlhood's bower, 
Shook the fresh dew from April's budding flower, 
Cut off my golden hair, 
Forsook the dear and fair, 
And fled, as from a serpent's eyes, 
Home and its holiest charities ; 
Instead of all things beautiful, 
Took this decaying skull, 
Hour after hour to feed my eye, 
As if foul gaze like this could purify; 
Broke the sweet ties that God had given, 
And sought to win His heaven 
By leaving home work all undone, 
The home race all unrun. — H. Bonar, D. D. 

Home and Mother Lost to Me Forevek. 

Oh, I can never forget the awful solemnity of my 
feelings on that never to be forgotten New Year's 



S3 
o 

K 

M 
> 

O 
H 
I 
M 
x 

r< 

o 




450 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope 

day, when I put off the old and familiar scenes of 
life, and embraced the new and unfamiliar austeri- 
ties of an untried experience. And oh, how often 
during- that day would come the harrowing" reflec- 
tion — home and mother lost, lost to me, forever ! 
Never again to enter that hallowed circle ? Never 
again behold its loved ones ? Never again to make 
the walls ring* with my girlish joy ? Never again 
to listen to the sweet voice of my mother, as it 
breathed its melody in my poor lonely ear ? — "Edith 
O'Gorman," page 26. 

Doing Penance. 

We have already given part of a chapter on Sat- 
isfaction or Penance. In the illustration before us 
this young* lady is required to present all of her 
jewels to the convent, and to recite psalms, lita- 
nies, etc. 

Escape from the Convent. 

A very interesting- story is told in a book entitled 
"Priest and Nun," about an intellig-ent g"irl, who 
for a long- time had been a pupil in a convent, 
assisting- a nun to escape. The girl, whose name 
was Agnes Anthon, had learned the ways of Rome, 
and seeing- a poor nun from Missouri weeping a 
great deal, managed to hear from her own lips her 
sad story. Her sympathies were immediately 
aroused, and she determined to assist her to gain 
the liberty that she so earnestly desired. In order 
to deceive the Mother Superior, Agnes pretended 
to have conceived a sudden desire to remain in the 
convent as a nun. This greatly pleased the Mother 
Superior. Agnes takes an old Scotch uncle into 
her confidence, to whom she tells her plans for the 
release of the Missouri nun ; he is not only willing 
to assist her, but is delighted to know that she is 
not thinking of becoming a nun. According to 




Doing Penance. 



452 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

instructions conveyed to the uncle he goes to the 
convent to see her, and names a day on which he 
will call at the convent to take her "home." On 
the day appointed, the uncle, apparently very 
angry, calls at the convent and orders Agnes to 
make herself ready to go with him. She is over- 
come with grief at the thought of leaving* the "dear 
Mother Superior" and the "dear convent." but 
assures them that she will certainty return to them. 
She begs, as a last favor, that she may be allowed 
to spend ten minutes in her own room in prayer. 
This is granted by the impatient uncle, and she 
retires to her room, and returns in ten minutes, 
deeply affected, with her veil down, and handker- 
chief pressed to her face, while sobs shake her 
form. The uncle immediately takes her to a wait- 
ing* carriage, and they drive away. Meanwhile, 
the nun from Missouri was in her cell and would 
not come out, but kept telling- her beads and repeat- 
ing- her prayers ; such was the story carried to the 
Abbess, who finally sent for her to find out the 
meaning- of her conduct. The nun pulled her hood 
down well over her face and with her head droop- 
ing- (thus concealing- her features) she went into 
the presence of the Abbess. 

"Look at me, daug-hter," said the Abbess. The 
nun slowly raised her head and pushed back her 
hood with both hands, and the brig-ht, handsome 
face of Ag-nes Anthon met the Superior's eye. 

" Ag-nes," said the Abbess, "what does this 
mean ?" 

"It means," said Ag-nes boldly, "that I have 
turned Rome's weapons against her. Here you 
taught me to deceive, and I have deceived you." 

"What have you done ?" asked the Abbess. 

"I have set your poor little captive from Missouri 
free ! She left yesterday with my uncle, and to-day 
he will be back for me, and if he does not find me, 




Escaping from the Convent. 



454 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

he has power and Scotch energy enough to turn 
your precious convent upside down. You helped 
this poor girl to run away from her relatives to 
join you, and now, in order to escape from you, she 
has used some of the guile that you have taught 
her." 

Just then a furious ring at the bell told Agnes 
that her uncle had come for her, and she was free 
to go out into the world again to spend the re- 
mainder of her life in assisting those who were in 
need, and in doing God's work in God's own way. 

Edith O'Gorman. 

"The great entertainment of the week to the 
citizens of Philadelphia, has been the lectures of 
Edith O'Gorman, the escaped nun, who on each 
night addressed large and enthusiastic audiences 
on 4 Convent Life,' and 'The Romish School Sys- 
tem,' and 'The Confessional,' 'Indulgences,' and 
4 Papal Supremacy.' . . . She has knelt with 
the unquestioning obedience of a blind devotee at 
the confessional until her reason revolted, and her 
ears tingled with very shame ; and instead of find- 
ing what she sought — soul repose in seclusion, and 
ardently desired perfection in penance and idola- 
trous devotion to Mary and a multitude of saints — 
she fled for refuge to Christ Jesus. . . . With 
the new-found light and the love of the Gospel in 
her heart, there is nothing vindictive or vitupera- 
tive in her chaste and eloquent periods. With pity 
she turns to the multitude of her former associates, 
who grope in darkness and terror through a life of 
ignorance, wretchedness and sin, and are dying 
without the true knowledge of God, and kindly 
points out to them the better way. " — M. E. Home 
Journal, Philadelphia, Pa. 





Edith O'Gorman. 



WHO ASSASSINATED LINCOLN? 



Ponder well the following- facts and draw your 
own conclusions. 

It was published in many papers that Lincoln 
was born a Catholic, baptized by a priest, and 
therefore was to be considered a renegade and an 
apostate. This publication was false. Rev. Mr. 
Chiniquy said to Lincoln at the time, "That re- 
port is your sentence of death." 

Lincoln declared at the conclusion of the trial of 
Rev. Mr. Chiniquy that he would devote all of his 
powers to the overthrow of Romanism, thereby 
furnishing - Rome a motive for his assassination. 

Lincoln prophesied that he would be assassinated 
by the Jesuits, and said he had "a presentiment 
that God would call him through the hand of an 
assassin." 

Lincoln said: "If the American people could 
learn what I know of the fierce hatred of the gene- 
rality of the priests of Rome against our institu- 
tions, our schools, our most sacred rights, and our 
so dearly bought liberties, they would drive them 
away or they would shoot them as traitors." He 
also said : " This war would never have been pos- 
sible without the sinister influence of the Jesuits. 
We owe it to popery that we now see our land 
reddened with the blood of her noblest sons. 
If the people knew the whole truth, this war would 
turn into a religious war. . . . New projects 
of assassination are detected almost every day. 
We feel, at their investigation, that they come 

(456) 




Lincoln. 



458 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

from the Jesuits. . . . The New York riots 
were evidently a Romish plot. We have proof in 
our hands that they were the work of Bishop 
Hughes." 

The first gun shot at Fort Sumter was fired by 
Beauregard, a Roman Catholic. 

The Pope was the only crowned head in Europe 
that recognized the Southern Confederacy. The 
Pope wrote a lengthy and consoling letter to Jeff 
Davis. Jeif Davis's sister was the Superioress of a 
convent in Bardstown, Kentuck}\ 

The plot for Lincoln's murder was planned in the 
home of Mrs. Surratt, a Roman Catholic. Legal 
eviden:e shows that the most devoted Catholics in 
the city lived there. Mrs. Surratt said, "The death 
of Lincoln is no more than the death of any nigger 
in the army." 

Mr. Lloyd, who kept the carbine that Booth 
wanted for protection, was a Roman Catholic. 

Dr. Mudd, who set Booth's leg, was a Roman 
Catholic. 

Garrett, in whose barn Booth took refuge, was a 
Roman Catholic. 

Booth was a Roman Catholic. 

General Baker, the great detective, says, "All 
the conspirators were Roman Catholics." 

John H. Surratt, who went to the Pope for pro- 
tection, and who was concealed under the banners 
of the Pope when he was detected, was a Roman 
Catholic. 

Prominent government officials said, "We have 
not the least doubt but that the Jesuits were at the 
bottom of the great iniquity." 

The death of Lincoln was announced by Roman 
Catholics, several hours before it occurred, at St. 
Joseph, Minn., forty miles from a railroad and 
eighty miles from the nearest telegraph station. 
This fact is established in history. And it is evi- 




Father Chiniquy. 



460 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

dent that it could only be known at that great dis- 
tance by communicating- the plot to the priest in 
that far-away town. 

Why has Rome treated his assassination so light- 
ly, and why do they devote so little space in their 
histories to the life of Lincoln ? Roman theologies 
teach that " obstinate heretics must be extermi- 
nated," and "if by declaring" our religion, we cause 
some disturbances or deaths, or even the wrath of 
the tyrant, it is often to the glory of God." See 
Liguori's and Thomas Aquinas' theologies. 

The history of the assassination of Coligny, 
Henry III. and Henry IV. by the hired assassins 
of the Jesuits, resembles the assassination of 
Lincoln. 

Booth said, "lean never repent. God made me 
the instrument of his punishment." This is the 
principle of Rome. 

When Booth was dying he pressed the madal of 
the Virgin Mary on his breast. 

Rev. Mr. Chiniquy, Colonel Edwin A. Sherman 
and Gen. Harris, warm friends of Lincoln, have 
carefully investigated this subject, and do most 
unequivocally affirm that Rome was the instigator 
of Lincoln's assassination. To their writings, 
especially Chiniquy's " Fifty Years in the Church 
of Rome," I refer the reader. Also, see " Trial of 
John Surratt," and "Assassination of Lincoln." 

Rome had the principle, the motive, the object 
to be accomplished, the reward in view, and she 
found in her own son, Booth, the man who did the 
daring deed. This same power is in our midst, 
unchanged in principle, spirit and purpose. 



HERETICS AND MARTYRS. 



In this chapter we give the portraits and brief 
sketches of the lives of some of the great reformers 
that Rome condemned as heretics. She has made 
no apology for these dark deeds. The blood of 
martyrs stains the pag^es of her history. To the 
great men upon whose faces you may now look and 
whose brief biographies you may now read, we are 
greatly indebted for Protestant Christianity. We 
enjoy the fruits of their labors. Let us cherish 
dearly the cause which they espoused, the Word 
they preached, and the God they adored. 

John Wycliffk, born A. D. 1324, died A. D. 1384. 

This man has been termed the "Father of the 
English Bible." He translated the Scriptures into 
English. He held that God's Word should be 
preached to all, and that the Bible should be the 
property of all. He firmly held to the conviction 
that the Scriptures alone are the only rule of faith. 
He openly attacked the Romish system. He as- 
sailed the doctrine of substantiation, and said it 
was an "abomination of desolation in the holy 
place." These views created an immense sensation 
at Oxford, and led the Archbishop of Canterbury 
to summon a Council that declared Wycliffe's opin- 
ions to be heretical. He was expelled from the 
University of Oxford. The latter part of his life 

(461) 



462 



America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 



was spent in translating- the Bible and preaching- 
the g-ospel. His English translation became an 
eng-ine of wonderful power ag-ainst Romanism. To 
translate the Bible was considered an act of heresy. 
His translation was widety circulated, but was con- 
demned by Rome. About twenty 3-ears after his 




John Wycliffe. 



death, he was adjudg-ed a heretic by the Council of 
Constance, and forty years after his death his re- 
mains were disinterred, burned, and the ashes 
thrown into the river. 



Heretics and Martyrs. 463 

John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, born 1360, mar- 
tyred 1417. 

The spirit of Wycliffe lived in the hearts of 
thousands of people. John Oldcastle caug"ht that 
spirit, and the brave, wise and good man dissem- 
inated the Protestant doctrine. He was cast into 




John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham. 



the Tower and urg-ed to beg- for absolution, but to 
this he replied : ;t I have never sinned against you, 
therefore I will never beg- forg-iveness of you." 



464 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Again, said he: "For a transgression of God's 
law they have never accused me, but for t-he sake 
of their own laws and traditions they treat me and 
others most shamefully." His trial took place 
December, 1417, before the House of Lords. He 
refused to defend himself, commending" himself to 
God as the one to whom vengeance belongs, and 
closed by saying": "It is a very small thing" that I 
should be judg-ed of you." He was condemned as 
a traitor, and sentenced to be burned as a heretic. 
He was laid on a cart, his hands tied behind him, 
and dragged through the city to the place of exe- 
cution. He was suspended by chains and a fire 
kindled under him that burned him slowly to death. 
He died praising" God and commending* his soul 
into His hands. 

John Huss, born 1373, martyred 1414. 

John Huss was a zealous advocate of the prin- 
ciples of Protestantism, and thereby incurred the 
censure of the Catholic clerg-y. He had the works 
of Wycliffe translated into the Bohemian lang-uag-e. 
He denounced the papal bull issued against the 
King- of Naples, and condemned the sale of papal 
indulg-ences. He said: "An evil and a wicked 
Pope is not the successor of Peter, but of Judas." 
He wrote a work, " On the Church," exposing" the 
abuses of popery. He was excommunicated, and 
condemned as a leader of heretics. When the fag*ots 
were piled around him, the Duke of Bavaria desired 
him to abjure. "No," said he, "what I taug"ht 
with my lips, I now seal with my blood." As soon 
as the fag-ots were lig"hted he sang" a hymn with a 
loud and cheerful voice, and looking* steadfastly 
toward heaven said : "Into thy hands, O Lord, do 
I commit my spirit : Thou hast redeemed me, O 
most g-ood and faithful God." His voice was soon 



Heretics and Martyrs. 465 

interrupted by the flames, and he expired amid the 




John Huss. 



crackling - of the burning- fag*ots and the noise of 
the multitude. 



Martin Luther, born 1483, died 1546. 

In the year 1520, the Pope condemned Luther's 
works as heretical, scandalous and offensive to 
pious ears. All persons were forbidden to read his 
writing's upon pain of excommunication, and those 
who possessed them were commanded to commit 

30 



466 



America ok Home: Christ or the Pope. 



them to the flames. Luther was commanded to 
publicly recant within sixty days, or be pronounced 
an obstinate heretic to be delivered to Satan for the 
destruction of the flesh, and princes were required 




to seize his person, and punish him as his crimes 
deserved. Luther was not disconcerted by this 
sentence, but declared the Pope to be the Anti- 
christ, declared ag-ainst his tyranny with greater 
vehemence, and having* assembled all of the profes- 
sors and students of the University of Wittenberg-, 
cast the volumes of the canon law, together with 
the bull of excommunication, into the flames. 
Besides Luther's translation of the Bible, he left 



Heretics and Martyrs. 467 

numerous sermons, letters and controversial writ- 
ings. Melanchthon said : kt Each one of his words 
was a thunderbolt." Carlyle says of him, "No 
more valiant man ever lived. . . " . The thino- he 
will quail before exists not on this earth or under 




it." Heine observes, *' He was not only the great- 
est but the most German man of our history. He 
was not only the tongue but the sword of his time." 
Carlyle characterizes him as "possessing- a most 
gentle heart, and indeed the truly valiant heart." 
In Luther's will he bequeathed his detestation of 
popery to his friends and brethren in the following 
words: 4 'I was the plague of popery in my life, 
and shall continue to be so in my death." 



468 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Ridlky and Latimer. 

These great reformers lived in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, and consecrated their powers to the cause of 
the Reformation. They opposed the Pope, and 




encouraged the circulation of the Bible in the com- 
mon tongue. They denied the real presence of 
Christ's body, blood, soul and divinity in the Sacra- 
ment, and repudiated the doctrine of Mass. The 
sentence of excommunication was read to Ridley, 
Latimer and Cranmer, April 20, 1554. Ridley and 
Latimer were executed October 16, 1555. They 
were led to the appointed place in the north part 
of Oxford. Ridley walked between the mayor of 



Heretics and Martyrs. 469 

the city and one of the aldermen. Latimer was led 
some distance behind him. When thej came to- 
g-ether, they embraced and kissed each other. 
Their burning", as was the custom, was preceded by 
a sermon. This was preached by Dr. Smith, one 
of their opponents. Ridley and Latimer begg-ed 
the commissioners for leave to say a few words, but 
they were refused. " Well," said Ridley, "so long 
as the breath is in my body I will never deny my 
Lord Christ, and his known truth. ... I com- 
mit our cause to Almighty God." They were then 
stripped of their clothes and chained to the post. 
As the fag-ots were being- lighted, Latimer cried 
out : "Be of g-ood comfort, Ridley. We shall this 
day lig-ht such a candle by God's grace, in Eng-land, 
as I trust shall never be put out." They prayed 
and committed their spirits to the Lord until the 
brig-lit flame kindled the powder that was tied 
about their necks, which soon exting-uished the life 
of the martyrs. As the burning flesh fell from 
their bodies, hundreds of spectators melted into 
tears. 

Thomas Cranmek, born A. D. 1489, martvred 
A. D. 1556. 

This great reformer consecrated his talents to 
subvert the power of the Pope in England and to 
abolish the monasteries. He declared the Pope 
was Antichrist and his doctrines empty lies. He 
suffered, with fortitude, martyrdom by fire. When 
the flames seized him he was heard to say, " Lord 
Jesus, receive nrv spirit." His form was then hid bv 
the flame and ascending smoke. Hume says, " He 
was a man of merit, possessed of learning- and ca- 
pacity, adorned with candor and sincerity. 
His moral qualities procured him universal respect, 
and the courag-e of his martyrdom made him the 
hero of the Protestant party." 



470 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

John Knox, born A. D. 1505, died A. D. 1572. 

This is the man who said to Queen Mary Stuart, 
the loyal supporter of Rome : " Neither doth your 
will, nor your thoug-ht, make the Roman harlot the 




Thomas Cranmer. 

true and immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ."* 
4 4 Queen Mary," says the Encyclopedia Britannica, 
"having- failed to influence the reformer by her 
many salt tears or her flattery, endeavored to g-et 
him into her power by moving" the privy council to 
pronounce him g-uilty of treason. . . . To her 
unconcealed chagrin and intense displeasure, Knox 



Heretics and Martyrs. 



471 



was, by a majority of the noblemen, absolved from 
all blame." In early life he openly renounced the 
Catholic religion, and became a zealous preacher 
of the Protestant doctrines. It is said that Mary 




John Knox. 



feared his prayers more than all the allied armies 
of Europe. Knox was distinguished for his cour- 
age and sagacity, as well as for his earnestness and 
implicit faith. Morton, who delivered his funeral 
oration, said of him : '" Here lies he who never feared 
the face of man." Froude said of him: " The one 
man without whom Scotland, as the modern world 



472 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

has known it, would have had no existence. . . . 
He was the one antagonist whom Mary Stuart could 
not soften ; he raised the poor commons of his country 
into a stern and rugged people, who might be hard, 
narrow, and superstitious, but who were men whom 
neither king, noble, nor priest could force again to 
submit to tyranny." (See History of England, 
Vol. 10.) 

Coligny of France, born A. D. 1518, murdered 

A. D. 1572. 

This noble Huguenot leader took arms for his 
faith. This great man and many of his friends 
are invited to the marriage of Charles IX. and 
Marguerite. It is all a snare. Plans are carefully 
laid for the crushing out of the Huguenots on that 
fatal day of St. Bartholomew. At daybreak ^ bell 
t.)lls, and the ruffians under the direction of the 
Duke of Guise, the Duke of Anjou and Catherine 
de Medici, do their bloody work. The door into 
Coligny's room is broken open, and the spear is 
thrust into his bosom. The Duke of Guise calls 
from the street for them to " throw down his body." 
The ruffians drag the lifeless body to the window 
and throw it out. It falls with a thud upon the 
ground. The Duke of Guise looks at it ; the face 
is covered with blood ; he wipes it away with the 
corner of his dressing-gown, and exclaims : " 'Tis 
Coligny, sure enough," and then stamps his heel 
into the face. The head is severed from the body, 
and taken to Catherine de Medici, and what does 
Catherine do with it ? Who of all the earth will 
be most pleased to receive it as a present ? Who 
but the Pope, her uncle ? It is embalmed and sent 
to Rome that the Pope may see, with his own eyes, 
the head of the great Protestant leader. Bells 
ring from the cathedrals ! Torches flame in the 



Heretics and Martyrs. 473 

streets ! Armed men rush frantically from house 
to house, breaking- in the doors and murdering- men, 
women and children ! There was but one cry : 
11 Mass or death — make }~our choice." The priests 
urg-ed the people to kill the heretics. Neither little 
infants, nor g-entle maidens, nor loving- mothers, 
nor hoary-haired men were spared. Seventy 
thousand were slaug-htered. The ground was cov- 
ered with g-hastly corpses. But God is not mocked ! 
He will double unto Rome double according- to her 
works. 

Martyrs' Memorial. 

This eleg-ant monument stands in Oxford on the 
spot where Ridley and Latimer were burned Octo- 
ber 15, 1555, and where, live months later, Cranmer 
was burned. This fitting- memorial was erected 
A. D. 1840, but the grandest memorials they left 
are the principles of the Reformation that are 
cherished in the heart of every honest Protestant. 
Their death was the kindling - of a light that shall 
never be extinguished; their cause was the Master's 
cause ; their faith was evang-elical faith ; they 
suffered with Christ, and are now reig-ning- with 
Him. 




Catherine de Medici with the head of Coligny. 
Copyright, 1895. 



TEXT-BOOKS USED IN ROME'S PARISH SCHOOLS. 



Saduer's Excelsior Studies in the History of 
the United States. 

(Published by William H. Sadlier, New York.) 

Let us first examine the preface ; let us note the 
bow the author makes ; let us examine the reasons 
for this publication. We are told in the preface : 

"The principal motive which induced the prep- 
aration of the present volume was to provide for 
American youth a correct narrative of American 
history. If it be true, as has been remarked by a 
celebrated modern writer, that European history 
has long* been a conspiracy against truth, it is 
equally certain that American history, or at least 
text-books on the subject, have also been in league 
against truth. It is simply wonderful how the part 
enacted by Catholics on our soil, from the days of 
Columbus to the present time, has been persistently 
and coolly ignored by writers of text-books; so that, 
from this very silence, a child of even ordinary in- 
tellect could not fail to infer that Catholicity has 
done little or nothing for our country ; whereas 
the reverse is singularly and emphatically the case. 
Catholics have been here from the earliest dawn; 
and, as was pithily observed by Archbishop 
Hughes : ' Neither the first page, nor the last page, 
nor the middle page, of our history would have 
been what it is, or where it is, without them.' The 
discovery, exploration, and, to some extent, the 
colonization of our country, were undertaken by 



Text-Books Used in Parochial Schools. 479 

Catholics, with Catholic aims, and with Catholic 
aid. . . . The independence of the United 
States was, in a great degree, secured by Catholic 
blood, talent and treasure. If our country's history 
be truly told, Catholicity must be met, willing-ly or 
unwillingly, at every step." 

Our attention is next called to some 4 ' Points to 
be specially noted." The seventh point reads as 
follows : " The Revolution and the Civil War, the 
details of which teachers find it so difficult and 
well-nigh impossible to impress upon the memory 
of their pupils, are as far as possible condensed," 
etc., etc. The eig-hth point to be noted : " Catho- 
lics, so far as could be in this brief outline, are 
assigried their proper place in the annals of onr 
land." 

After a careful reading* of this preface, the 
student of history may expect to find a text-book 
somewhat different from those used in our public 
schools, and he will not be disappointed. The 
Romanist objects to our public school histories, and 
therefore are we not to infer that this is what he 
offers as a substitute — especially so as the author 
claims this is a correct narrative of our country's 
histor} 7 ? In Study No. 2 we are introduced to 
Father Juan Perez, and the work he had to do in 
introducing - Columbus to Queen Isabella. A de- 
tailed account is given of the crosses and blessing's 
and chants and pra} T ers of Columbus and his crew, 
from the meeting- of Father Perez to the landing* at 
San Salvador. In Study No. 3 our attention is 
called to the Mass of Thanksgiving- that was 
offered on the return of Columbus ; to the Domini- 
can missionaries that accompanied Columbus on a 
second voyag-e, and to the foundation of the first 
Catholic church in the New World on the festival 
of the Epiphany. This study closes (pag-e 21) with 
a paragraph on the spirit of the discovery, in which 



480 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

we are told "the discovery of America was 
preeminently a Catholic enterprise. In fact, Prot- 
estantism did not as yet exist. The voyage was 
made under the protection of the Blessed Virgin, 
and for truly Catholic motives. . . . To make 
it still more Catholic, the reigning- pontiff, Alex- 
ander VI., issued a bull, in which he laid it as an 
obligation on the Spanish sovereigns to send to the 
newly-found islands and continent tried men, to 
instruct the inhabitants in the Catholic faith and 
teach them good morals." 

We are next introduced to some biographical 
sketches, amongst them a cardinal, a bishop, a 
Catholic prince, a Catholic queen, Father Perez 
and others, some of whom had little or nothing to 
do with the discovery of the New World. Section 
No. 2 is made up pretty much of Catholicity. The 
author is very particular to tell us that De Soto died 
beneath the shadow of the cross he had planted, 
and over his remains was chanted the first requiem 
ever heard in those wild regions. The second 
study under the second section is on "Missions in 
the South." It may not be amiss to mention the 
headings of some of the paragraphs : " Franciscan 
Missions in New Mexico," "Jesuits in Florida," 
"Father Segura," "Franciscans in Florida," 
"Franciscans in New Mexico." We are also told in 
this study that the Huguenots were French Prot- 
estants, and "some at length* turned pirates and 
captured Spanish vessels." 

On page 47 we are again introduced to some bio- 
graphical sketches, amongst them such eminent 
men as Father Cancer, Father Da Corpa, Rt. Rev. 
John Juarez, a celebrated Dominican missionarv, 
Las Casas, Father Mark, Father Martinez, Monk 
Ojeda, Father Omas, Father John Roger, Father 
John Baptist Segura, Saint Francis Borgia, the 
third general of the Society of Jesus, and Pope St. 



Text-Books Used in Parochial Schools. 481 

Pius V., of whom it is said, " he died in the sixty- 
ninth year of his age, and one century later was 
beatified by Clement X. He was canonized in 1712, 
and is classed among-st the greatest and best of the 
successors of St. Peter." 

On pag-e 75, on the study of New England, we 
copy a paragraph headed " Religious Intolerance " : 
" Thougii the Puritans had been the victims of re- 
ligious persecution in the Old World, in the New 
they themselves proved equally intolerant. They 
established odious relig-ious tests, and persecuted or 
banished all those who ventured to worship 
God in a manner different from their own." This 
study closes with a chapter on "The Jesuits in 
Maine." On pag-e 83, we have a giimpse at the 
character of the colonists : " The Puritans were in- 
dustrious, sober, enterprising-, and relig-ious in their 
own way ; but they were also narrow-minded, ex- 
clusive, and short-sig-hted in character, cruel to the 
Indians, and big-oted and persecuting- to all creeds 
except their own. . . . New England Protes- 
tantism appealed to liberty, and then closed the 
door ag-ainst her." The youth that studies this 
history will not entertain a very hig-h respect for 
our Puritan forefathers. 

On pag-e 91, we are introduced to a chapter on 
"The Early Jesuit Missionaries at the North," 
and we are told in a paragraph on the Exploration 
of the Missionaries, that they were the pioneers, 
not alone of the cross and of religion, but of discov- 
ery and exploration, of colonization and civiliza- 
tion. Then we have the following- paragraphs : 
"Discoveries and Improvements made by the Mis- 
sionaries,'" "Franciscan Missionaries in Canada," 
"The Missions Resumed," "Brebceuf," "The 
Ajax of the Mission," "Jesuits in Michig-an," 
"Father Jog-ues in New York," " Other Missiona- 
ries," etc., etc. The next study is on "Missiona- 



482 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

ries at the North — Continued." These missionaries 
and the work they did occupy many pages. Of 
course these missionaries are all Jesuits. Nothing 1 
is said of Protestant missionaries, of their devo- 
tion, of their self-sacrificing spirit. 

On page 116, we have paragraphs on "Missions 
in New York " and " Catholicity Proscribed.'* On 
page 121, we are told of the landing of two vessels 
at St. Clemens, on the Potomac, and "having 
landed on the festival of the Annunciation, mass 
was celebrated for the first time in that wild re- 
gion," a fact in history that is important for Prot- 
testants, who attend Catholic schools, to know. 

On page 125, under a "Study on Maryland," 
there is a paragraph on the subject of religion 
which reads as follows : "Under Catholic rule, all 
Christian religions were protected by law ; but 
when Protestants rose to power, a spirit of intoler- 
ance unhappily prevailed." Mr. Sadlier seems to 
be gifted in the art of presenting history in such a 
light as to prejudice those who study it against 
Protestant people. He makes it appear that the 
Catholics are a persecuted people, and that Prot- 
estants have been a most intolerant people. 

We are next introduced to some ten pages of 
biographical sketches, and, as usual, they are prin- 
cipally Romanists, the first one being a Jesuit mis- 
sionary, Father Allouez, Lord Baltimore, Charle- 
voix, the author of the life of "Mother Mary 
of the Incarnation," Father Marquette, Pope Urban 
VIII., Father Andrew White, to whom twice as 
much space is devoted as to the biography of 
William Penn We would do Father Rasle an in- 
justice if we didn't make mention of his death that 
is recorded at some length on page 155. On page 
163, we are told how the Arcadians counted their 
beads, chanted the litanies of the Blessed Virgin, 
etc., etc. 



Text-Books Used in Parochial Schools. 483 

On page 232, we have a study on Catholicity and 
the Revolution. The first paragraph is on Catho- 
lics and Patriotism. Two paragraphs are devoted 
to Mr. Carroll, the first Bishop in the United States. 
Another paragraph to "Missions in Penns}'lvania," 
and another to k> Missions in California." 

The next chapter is on biographical sketches, 
and the Rt. Revs., Holy Fathers and Bishops take 
their place along-side of Washington, Henry and 
Jefferson. In fact, more space is given to Arch- 
bishop Carroll than to either Washington or Jeffer- 
son. It is made to appear that these saintly priests 
and bishops had more to do in creating- history 
than the great Revolutionary leaders of Protestant- 
ism. 

We now pass over about one hundred pages 
devoted to the Civil War, written with an attempt 
at impartiality. The work of Lincoln is sunk into 
insignificance. " The death of Lincoln," says the 
author, " produced no disorder." On pag-e 362 
reference is made to the Washington Centennial. 
The names of the orators and great men of the 
occasion are not mentioned, but the benediction 
that was pronounced by Archbishop Corrigan, of 
New York, is given in full. 

Four pages are then devoted to "Art and Liter- 
ature." The space given to Catholic authors is 
twice that allotted to Protestants, though in im- 
portance the latter outweigh the former a thousand- 
fold. 

We are next introduced to a chapter on "Reli- 
gion." Sixteen pages of this chapter is devoted to 
the Roman Catholic religion, and one-third of a 
page to the Protestant denominations, whose names 
are sarcastically mentioned. In this chapter we 
have brief articles en the following : Increase of 
Bishoprics, Growth of the Church, Religious 
Orders, Sanctity of the Confessional, First Provin- 



484 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

cial Council, The First Archbishop of New York, 
The Several Plenary Councils of the Church in the 
United States, The First American Cardinal, The 
Catholic Centennial, Statistics of Catholicity, The 
Blessed Virgin the Patroness of the United States, 
etc., etc. — items of great importance, many of 
which some of you may never have heard. 

The book closes with thirteen pages of biograph- 
ical sketches, and of course Archbishop Hughes, 
Cardinal McCloskey and Father Smet are the most 
important, or at least the most space is allotted to 
them — Father Smet, of whom you may never have 
heard, receives more attention than either Webster 
or Lincoln. Archbishop Hughes' sketch occupies 
more space than both Lincoln and Madison. In 
the biography of Hughes we are told of "that 
memorable debate before the Common Council of 
New York, in which he discussed the public school 
system, and opposed alone the eminent council 
arrayed against him. Though his demands were 
rejected by the Common Council, he did not dismiss 
the matter, but recommended the Catholics to 
nominate independent candidates at the ensuing 
election. This movement brought to view such 
unexpected strength that a modification of the 
school system was soon after effected. The present 
New York system, though an improvement on that 
which preceded it, is still false in principle, and 
affords to Catholics no immunity from double taxa- 
tion for the education of their children." (See 
page 383.) 

Verily, Rome has rejected all correct histories of 
our country and has written one to suit herself, and 
what is it? It is a burlesque on history. It is, as 
I have said before, a history of Romanism in the 
United States. It does an injustice to puritanism, 
it ignores Protestantism, it distorts history, it 
sinks into insignificance that which is promi- 



Tkxt-Books Used in* Parochivl Schools. 485 

nent and brings into prominence that which is in- 
significant. It gives lengthy accounts of priests 
who did nothing to make histon T , and abridges the 
heroic deeds of our great patriots. The youth 
that studies only this history, will have an incor- 
rect knowledge of our country and will be preju- 
diced against Protestantism. 

I have in my possession the Catholic National 
Series of Readers, prepared by Bishop Gilmour. 
The articles in these books, as well as their illus- 
trations, are prepared with the same object in view 
as Sadlier's History. They contain chapters upon 
the Confessional, the Mass, the Blessed Virgin, the 
Holy Catholic Church, Saints, Images, Archbishops, 
Popes, etc., etc. All the dogmas of Rome are 
kept prominently in view, and are carefully and 
seductively presented. The child that studies 
them must necessarily be influenced to believe in 
and to support the Church, and to oppose every 
principle the Church opposes. Even the geogra- 
phies, in questions, answers and illustrations, are 
made subservient to the purposes of the Church. 

After having carefully examined the books used 
in many of Rome's parochial schools in this country, 
I am prepared to say that they are evidently writ- 
ten with one avowed purpose in view, viz., to make 
the children who study them Roman Catholics. 
The Catechism is the main study in the school, and 
the other books play second to the Catechism. 

How much longer will Uncle Sam endure this 
perversion of history ? Must he surrender his 
children to the Jesuits? Must he give up the 
training of the American youth ? The struggle 
is on ! One or the other will gain the victory ! 
Will }*ou come to the help of Uncle Sam ? Indif- 
ference means defeat. Activity means victory. 



APPENDIX. 



1. — Papal Infallibility. 

The declaration of papal infallibility was deliv- 
ered to the Church enveloped in malediction, the 
familiar drapery of papal decrees. It solemnly 
anathematized the following* persons : Those who 
deny that the blessed apostle Peter was chief of the 
apostles and head of the whole visible Church ; 
those who deny that Peter had perpetual successors, 
or that the Roman pontiffs are his successors; those 
who deny the supreme authority of the Pope over 
all churches and pastors in all parts of the world, 
not only in reg-ard to faith and morals, but also in 
regard to discipline and government ; those who 
deny that the official decisions of the Roman pon- 
tiff, on questions of faith and morals, are infallible, 
without any consent of the Church. 

On the surface it seems merely an idle jest that 
five hundred elderly g-entlemen, after months of 
agitating* debate, should gravely declare another 
gentleman, also elderly and conspicuously erring-, 
to be wholly incapable of error. But this view, 
however just, does, by no means, exhaust the sig*- 
nificance of the transaction. The assertion of 
infallibility is a reiterated declaration of irrecon- 
cilable hostility ag-ainst all enlig-htening- modern 
impulses. It is the assumption of power more 
despotic than the world ever knew before, in order 
the better to give effect to that hostility. Such 
a despotism, accepted by two hundred million Chris- 

(486) 



Appendix. 487 

tians, and animated by such a motive, cannot be 
lightly regarded, but it furnishes no ground of 
alarm. This vast and threatening aggression upon 
human liberty is, in truth, an evidence of decay. It 
is a device of church officials, forced upon them by 
the decline of faith among their people. The sup- 
porters of infallibility were especially numerous in 
France and Ital} T , where the power of the Church 
is waning ; in England and in the Eastern coun- 
tries, where the faithful are a little band living 
among enemies. The growing intelligence of 
Europe saps the foundations of papal authority. 
Men who are learning to read and reflect, and who 
have tasted the enlightening influences of travel, 
cannot help an increasing alienation from a power 
which abhors railways and the printing-press, and 
would gladly suppress freedom of thought if it 
could. Men used to self-government in state, feel 
the yoke of absolute authority in church becoming 
constantly more irksome. Priests, conscious of the 
change, flock to Rome and vainly strive to recall 
by the vote of a council the diminishing supremacy 
of the Church. It is the only defensive measure 
that is possible for them. Once Rome could pre- 
vent progress ; now she can but curse it. — Robert 
Mackenzie, in the Nineteenth Century, page 447. 

2. — Romanism Incompatible with Either 
Religious or Civil Liberty. 

A church which claims to be infallible, ipso facto, 
claims to be the mistress of the world ; and those who 
admit its infallibility, thereby admit their entire 
subjection to its authority. It avails nothing to say 
that this infallibility is limited to matters of faith 
and morals, for under those heads is included the 
whole life of man, religious, moral, domestic, social, 
and political. A church which claims the right 
to decide what is true in doctrine and obligatory in 



488 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

morals, and asserts the power to enforce submis- 
sion to its decisions on the pain of eternal per- 
dition, leave no other room for any other authority 
upon earth. In the presence of the authority of 
God, every other disappears. With the claim to 
infallibility is inseparably connected the claim to 
pardon sin. The Church does not assume merely 
the rig-ht to declare the conditions on which sin 
will be forgiven at the bar of God, but it asserts 
that it has the prerogative to grant or withhold 
that forgiveness. "Eg"o, to absolve," is the for- 
mula the Church puts into the mouth of its priest- 
hood. Those who receive that absolution are 
saved ; those whom the Church refuses to absolve 
must bear the penalty of their offenses. An infal- 
lible Church is thus the only institute of salvation. 
All within its pale are saved; all without it perish. 
Those only are in the Church who believe what it 
teaches, who do what it commands, and are subject 
to its officers and especially its head, the Roman 
pontiff. Any man, therefore, whom the Church 
excommunicates is thereby shut out of the king-- 
doni of heaven ; any nation placed under its ban is 
not only deprived of the consolations of religious 
services, but of the necessary means of salvation. 
If the Church be infallible, its authority is no 
less absolute in the sphere of social and political 
life. It is immoral to contract or to continue an 
unlawful marriage, to keep an unlawful oath, to 
enact unjust laws, to obey a sovereign hostile to 
the Church. The Church, therefore, has the rig-ht 
to dissolve marriages, to free men from the obliga- 
tions of their oaths and citizens from their alle- 
giance, to abrogate civil laws, and to depose sover- 
eigns. These prerogatives have not only been 
claimed, but time and again exercised by the 
Church of Rome. They all of right belong- to 
that Church, if it be infallible. As these claims 



Appendix. 489 

are enforced by penalties involving" the loss of the 
soul, they cannot be resisted by those who admit 
the Church to be infallible. It is obvious, there- 
fore, that where this doctrine is held there can be 
no liberty of opinion, no freedom of conscience, no 
civil or political freedom. As the recent ecumen- 
ical Council of the Vatican has decided that the 
infallibility is vested in the Pope, it is henceforth 
a matter of faith with Romanists, that the Roman 
pontiff is the absolute sovereign of the world. All 
men are bound, on the penalty of eternal death, to 
believe what he declares to be true, and to do 
whatever he decides to be obligatory. — "Systematic 
Theology," by Charles Hodge, D. D., page 149. 

3. — The Influence of the Confessional 
on Nations. 

IRELAND. 

Why is it that the Irish Roman Catholic people are so 
irreparably degraded and clothed in rags f Why is it, 
that that people, whom God has endowed with so 
many noble qualities, seem to be so deprived of in- 
telligence and self-respect that they glory in their 
own shame ? Why is it that their land for centu- 
ries has been the land of bloody riots and cowardly 
murders? The principal cause is the enslaving of the 
Irish women by means of the confessional. 

Every one knows that the spiritual slavery and 
degradation of the Irish woman have no bounds.. 
After she has been enslaved and degraded, she, in 
turn, has enslaved and degraded her husband and 
sons. Ireland will be an object of pity ; she will 
be poor, miserable, riotous, bloodthirsty, degraded, 
so long as she rejects Christ, to be ruled by the 
father confessor, planted in every parish by the 
Pope. 



490 America or Rome : Christ or the Pope 

FRANCE. 

Who has not been amazed and saddened by the 
downfall of France ? How is it that her once 
mighty armies have melted away, that her brave 
sons have so easily been conquered and disarmed ? 
How is it that France, fallen powerless at the feet 
of her enemies, has frightened the world by the 
spectacle of the incredible, bloody, and savage fol- 
lies of the commune? 

Do not look for the causes of the downfall, humil- 
iation, and untold miseries of France anywhere else 
than in the confessional. For centuries has not 
that great country obstinately rejected Christ ? 
Has she not slaughtered or sent to exile her noblest 
children, who wanted to follow the Gospel ? Has 
she not given her fair daughters into the hands of 
the confessors, who have defiled and degraded them? 
How could woman, in France, teach her husband 
and sons to love liberty, and die for it, when she 
herself was a miserable, an abject slave ? How 
could she form her husband and sons to the manly 
virtues of heroes, when her own mind was defiled 
and her heart corrupted by the priest ? 

The French woman had unconditionally surren- 
dered the noble and fair citadel of her heart, intel- 
ligence, and womanly self-respect into the hands 
of her confessor long before her sons surrendered 
their swords to the Germans at Sedan and Paris. 
The first unconditional surrender had brought the 
second. The complete moral destruction of woman 
by the confessor in France has been a long work. 
It has required centuries to bow down, break, and 
enslave the noble daughters of France. Yes ; but 
those who know France, know that that destruction 
is now complete as it is deplorable. The downfall 
of woman in France, and her supreme degradation 
through the confessional, is now vn fait accompli, 



Appendix. 491 

which nobody can deny; the highest intellects have 
seen and confessed it. 

One of the most profound thinkers of that unfor- 
tunate country, Michelet, has depicted that supreme 
and irretrievable degradation in a most eloquent 
book, "The Priest/ The Woman, The Family," 
and not a voice has been raised to deny or refute 
what he has said. 

Those who have any knowledge of history and 
philosophy know very well that the moral degrada- 
tion of the woman is soon followed everywhere by 
the moral degradation of the nation, and the moral 
degradation of the nation is very soon followed by 
ruin and overthrow. 

The French nation had been formed by God to 
be a race of giants. They were chivalrous and 
brave ; they had bright intelligences, stout hearts, 
strong arms and a mighty sword. But as the 
hardest granite rock yields and breaks under the 
drop of water which incessantly falls upon it, so 
that great nation had to break and fall into pieces, 
under, not the drop, but the rivers of impure 
waters which, for centuries, have incessantly flowed 
in upon it from the pestilential fountain of the con- 
fessional. "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but 
sin is a reproach to any people." (Proverbs xiv. 34.) 

In the sudden changes and revolutions of these 
latter days, France is also sharing; and the Church 
of Rome has received a blow there, which, though 
perhaps only temporary in its character, will help 
to awaken the people to the corruption and fraud 
of the priesthood. 

SPAIN. 

Why is is it that Spain is so miserable, so weak, 
so poor, so foolishly and cruelly tearing down her 
own bosom, and reddening her fair valleys with the 
blood of her own children ? 

The principal, if not the only, cause of the down- 



492 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

fall of that great nation is the confessional. There, 
also, the confessor has defiled, degraded, and enslaved 
women, and women in turn have defiled and de- 
graded their husbands and sons. Women have sown 
broadcast over their country the seeds of that 
slavery, of that want of Christian honesty, justice, 
and self-respect with which they had themselves 
been first imbued in the confessional. 

But when you see, without a single exception, 
the nations whose women drink the impure and 
poisonous waters which flow from the confessional, 
sinking- down so rapidly, do you not wonder how 
fast the neighboring" nations, who have destroyed 
these dens of impurity, prostitution, and abject 
slavery, are rising up ? 

What a marvelous contrast is before our eyes ! 
On the one side, the nations who allow woman 
to be degraded and enslaved at the feet of her con- 
fessor — France, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, etc.,, etc., — 
are there, fallen into the dust, bleeding", strug"- 
gling", powerless, like the sparrow whose entrails 
are devoured by the vulture ! On the other side, 
see how the nations whose women g"o to wash their 
robes in the blood of the Lamb, are soaring" up, as 
on eag"le wing"s, in the hig*hest regions of progress, 
peace and liberty. 

If legislators could once understand the respect 
and protection they owe to women, they would 
soon, by stringent laws, prohibit auricular confes- 
sion, as contrary to g"ood morals and the welfare of 
society ; for thougli the advocates of auricular con- 
fession have succeeded, to a certain extent, in 
blinding" the public, and in concealing" the abom- 
inations of the system under a lying" mantle of 
holiness and religion, it is nothing* else than a 
school of impurity. 

I say more than that. After twenty-five years 
of hearing- the confessions of the common people, 



Appendix. 493 

of the highest classes of society, of the laymen, of 
the priests, of the grand vicars and the bishops 
and the nuns, I conscientiously say before the 
world, that the immorality of the confessional is 
of a more dangerous and degrading- nature than that 
which we attribute to the social evil of our great 
cities. The injury caused to the intelligence and 
to the soul in the confessional, as a general rule, 
is of a more dangerous nature and more irreme- 
diable, because it is neither suspected nor under- 
stood by its victims. — Chiniquy, "Priest, Woman 
and Confessional," page 128. 

4. — Transubstantiation a Spkcies of 
Cannibalism. 

Durand admits, that 4 * human infirmity, unac- 
customed to eat man's flesh, would, if the substance 
were seen, refuse participation." Aquinas avows 
" the horror of swallowing human flesh and blood." 
" The smell, the species, and the taste of bread and 
wine remain," says the sainted Bernard, "to con- 
ceal flesh and blood, which if offered without dis- 
guise as meat and drink, might horrify human 
weakness." According to Alcuin in Pithou, "Al- 
mighty God causes the prior form to continue in 
condescension to the frailty of man, who is unused 
to swallow raw flesh and blood." "The partaker," 
says Pithou in the Canon Law, " drinks the like- 
ness of blood, and therefore no horror is excited, 
nor anything done which might be ridiculed by 
pagans." The statements of Faber and Lyra are 
to the same effect. According to the Trentine 
Catechism, "The Lord's body and blood are ad- 
ministered under the species of bread and wine, on 
account of man's horror of eating and drinking 
human flesh and blood." These descriptions are 
shocking, and calculated, in some measure, to 
awaken the horror which they portray. The acci^ 



494 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

dents, it appears, which remain after consecration, 
are like sugar, which conceals bitter medicine from 
a child and renders it pleasing- and palatable. This 
is actually the simile of Hugo. He compares the 
forms of the bread and wine to the ingredients with 
which a physician would sweeten a bitter draught 
for a squeamish patient. Human flesh and blood, 
clothed in this manner with the external appear- 
ance of bread and wine, may, according" to popish 
divinity, be swallowed without any disgust of 
nausea, and with pleasure and good taste. The 
apology, however, is a very silly device. The same 
reason might excuse the cannibals of New Zealand. 
The American savage might mix human gore with 
other food, and cover human flesh with something 
less offensive to the senses, so as to disguise the 
outward appearance, and then glut his appetite 
with a full meal. He would then. enjoy the sub- 
stance clothed with another exterior. All this, 
however, would not exempt the barbarian from the 
brutality of anthropophagy. The Romanist, on 
the supposition of the corporeal presence, swallows 
human flesh and blood as well as the Indian. — 
"Variations of Popery," page 422. 

5. — Adoration of the Host. 

On page 253 of "The Mission Book," the ques- 
tion is asked, "Is it right to adore the blessed 
eucharist ? " "A. Yes; we may and ought to 
adore it." In the canon of the mass the people are 
t jld to adore the host when the priest elevates it. 
The Council of Trent decreed : "If anv one should 
say that this Holy Sacrament should not be adored 
nor solemnly carried about in procession, nor held 
up publicly for the people to adore it, or that its 
worshipers be idolators: let him be accursed." 

Of this idolatrous adoration of the elements of 
the Lord's Supper I have only to say : 1. Christ 



Appendix. 495 

never commanded it. 2. The Apostles never com- 
manded it. 3. The primitive Christians never 
practiced it. 4. The Church of Rome did not prac- 
tice it until the thirteenth century. 5. The Apostle 
accused the Gentiles of changing" "the glory of the 
incorruptible God into an image made like to cor- 
ruptible man and to birds and to four-footed beasts 
and to creeping things." So Rome would change 
the corruptible bread into the incorruptible God, 
who is without variableness or shadow of turning - . 
What presumption ! what foolishness ! what idol- 
atry ! 

6. — Extreme Unction. 

In Deharbe's Large Catechism we are told on 
page 114, "Extreme unction is a sacrament in 
which by the anointing with holy oil and by the 
prayers of the priest, the sick receive the grace of 
God for the good of their souls, and often also 
their bodies." The same Catechism tells us of the 
effects of extreme unction : "It increases sanctify- 
ing grace ; it remits venial sins, and those mortal 
sins which a sick person repents of ; it strengthens 
the soul in its sufferings and temptations ; it often 
relieves the pains of sick persons, and sometimes 
restores him to health." The same authority tells 
us, "we should receive extreme unction when we 
are in danger of death from sickness." 

In Edgar's "Variations of Popery," page 455, 
there is one paragraph well calculated to upset 
this dogma in the eyes of any thinking man : " The 
history of this innovation is easily traced. Extreme 
unction in its present form was a child of the 
twelfth century. The monuments of Christian 
theology for eleven hundred years mention no cere- 
mony which in its varied and unmeaning mum- 
mery corresponds with the unction of Romanism. 
The patrons of this superstition have rifled the 
annals of ecclesiastical history for eleven centuries, 



496 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

and have failed in the discovery of either precept 
or example for a right which they affirm was prac- 
ticed as a sacrament in every nation of Christen- 
dom since the era of redemption." 

7. — Devotion of the Scapulars. 

Revelation made to Pope John XXII.: kk And if 
among- the religious or brethren of the Confrater- 
nity, who depart out of this life, there shall be any 
who for their sins have been cast into purgatory; I, 
their Glorious Mother, will descend on the Satur- 
day after their death, and I will deliver those whom 
I find in purgatory, and take them up to the Holy 
Mountain of eternal life." These are the very 
words of the Bull of Pope John XXII.— "The 
Book of the Confraternity," page 97. 

8. — Miracles Performed by Virtue of the 
Scapular. 

"At the siege of Montpelier, in the year 1622, a 
soldier named M. de Beauregard was struck by a 
musket-ball, but did not receive the slightest wound. 
He staggered, but did not fall, like a man who 
had merely received a slight blow. He was instant- 
ly undressed, when it was perceived that the ball, 
after penetrating- his clothes, rested on the scapular 
which he wore, where it stopped, thus evidently 
proving that to it he owed the preservation of his 
life. Louis XIII., King of France, who witnessed 
this miracle himself, immediately put on this piece 
of heavenly armor also. This miracle is placed 
beyond doubt, as it was witnessed by a numerous 
army." Page 119. 

" In the year 1719, the hamlet of Ballou, in the 
Diocese of Metz, was threatened with destruction 
by fire, which had suddenly broken out, when the 
confidence of the inhabitants in the protection of 
Our Lady of Mount Carmel induced them to cast a 



Appendix. 497 

scapular into the flames ; the fire instantly abated, 
and the scapular was found miraculously preserved 
on a burning- rafter. The Bishop of Metz had an 
attestation of the above drawn up, which was 
signed and sealed by him." — " Golden Book of Con- 
fraternity," pag-e 124. 

9. — Is Romanism Tolerant? 

In reply to Bishop Spaulding-'s article in the 
North American Review, in which he declares his 
Church to be tolerant, and patriotic orders to be 
intolerant, the editor of the St. Louis Observer says: 

"It is not necessary to invoke the testimony of 
ancient history to justify the people's fear of 
Romanism. That history has been burnt into the 
memories of men in all countries where freedom 
has strug-gled ag-ainst tyranny. What is g-oing - on 
to-day is what concerns us now. If Rome had 
chang-ed her policy, it would be easy to forgive and 
forg-et the dark past ; but she is still the same 
intolerant, tyrannical power that she has always 
been. Look abroad and see what is the actual con- 
dition of things in the Roman Catholic countries. 

u Take France — the most enlig-htened, the most 
progressive and the most moral of Roman Catholic 
countries on the earth. What is the attitude of the 
enlig-htened statesmen of France towards the 
Church of Rome ? The watchword of French 
statesmen is: 'Clericalism, that is the enem}\' 
Since it was first spoken by Leon Gambetta, twenty 
3 r ears ag-o, it has not ceased to be the most potent 
expression in French politics. Even conservative 
Frenchmen have been driven far towards revolu- 
tionary politics because of the ag-gressive meddle- 
someness of the priesthood. Within the last ten 
years, France —enlig-htened, republican France — 
has driven every priest and nun out of the public 
schools, charity hospitals, and the asylums of the 
republic. It has been found necessary to adopt 

23 



498 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

stern, repressive measures, to keep the Catholic 
clergy in check. They grew so bold and so defiant, 
that nothing" short of the stern hand of the law 
could break their power. Enlig-htened Frenchmen 
dread nothing* so much as the intrigues and plots 
of the priests. 

" Let us turn our thoughts for a moment toItal} r , 
the very birthplace of Romanism. What is the 
truth in regard to that long-suffering- land ? Why 
did the people twenty-five years ago vote a thou- 
sand to one to transfer their allegiance from the 
Pope to the King ? Why is it that the Italian 
people are this day enduring- well-nigh insupport- 
able burdens to maintain a great army, but for the 
fear that the Pope will regain temporal power? 
Their most enlightened statesman, Count Crispi, 
does not hesitate to say that the Pope is responsible 
for this condition of thing's. Italy is free because 
she defies the Pope. The Italian g-overnment is in 
imminent peril every hour because of the secret 
plottings carried on ag-ainst it in the very capital 
of the kingdom. 

" Let Bishop Spaulding turn his eyes to Austria 
if he wants to know whether Romanism is tolerant 
or not. Two years ago the editor of this paper 
was in Vienna, the capital of Austria, just at the 
time when the Methodist Church was suppressed 
by the instigation of the Archbishop of Vienna. 
A Protestant cannot even hold a prayer-meeting- in 
his own house in Austria without being- arrested 
and imprisoned for disturbing- the peace. 

" There is no religious or civil freedom in any 
country where Rome has power. In Hungar}-, 
only a few weeks ago, the whole population rose, 
almost as one man, against the tyranny of Rome. 
In the late political strug-gle the Church of Rome 
was on one side and the people of Hungary on the 
other. When Hungary buried her greatest patriot 
only a few months ago, the only Hungarians who 



Appendix. 4 ( M) 

did not join in mourning- the dead were the Roman 
Catholic priests and their political followers. 

" Why are the Jesuits still banished from enlig-ht- 
ened Germany ? It is universally conceded that 
Germany is the most enlightened nation in Europe. 
Her universities are crowded with students from 
every nation under heaven, and the only man that 
is denied a place in her halls of learning- is the 
Jesuit. Only last week the news came from Berlin 
that the Catholics were stirring up a revolt in Posen 
and other parts of Polish Germany. 

"This month there was an election in Belgium, 
and the only exciting question was the school ques- 
tion. Ten years ago, the Roman Catholics abol- 
ished the free schools and set fifteen thousand 
Protestant school-teachers adrift. The strug-He 
that is now on in little Belgium is between Liberal- 
ism and Clericalism. The fear of Rome has united 
all shades of political opinion in one party. The 
tariff, the labor question, the social question, all 
disappear before Romanism, the enemy of liberty. 
The excitement is at a fever heat while we pen 
these few words, four thousand miles from the 
scene of conflict. 

" It is in vain that Bishop Spaulding would im- 
pute ignorance to those Americans who dread the 
encroachments of Rome upon our free institutions. 
We have not even given a tithe of the facts which 
cause enlightened Americans to rise up in protest 
against the enemies of their schools and their reli- 
gious liberties.'' 

Bishop Spaulding's article appeared in the North 
American Review, September, 1894. 

10. — Illiteracy — Roman Catholic and Protes- 
tant Countries Contrasted. 

The practical effect and working result which the 
control or overshadowing influence of the Roman 
Catholic Church has upon public education, 
wherever such control or influence exists, are best 



500 



America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 



shown by contrasting- the percentage of illiterates 
in those countries where Romanism and Protestant- 
ism are respectively the dominant religions of the 
people. It will be seen that whatever the reason 
may be, the result of the two influences is widely 
different ; that Romanism has a blig-hting- effect 
upon public education, and that it leads to, or is 
connected with, illiteracy to an astounding- degree; 
in short, that in eight of the largest countries of 
Europe and America, where the Roman Cathol ics are 
in the ascendancy, the percentage of illiteracy is 
many times greater than it is in the eight Prot- 
estant countries of the same portions of the world. 



Roman Catholic 
Countries. 



Venezuela 

Austria (Hungary). 

France 

Brazil 

Spain 

Portugal 

Belgium 

Italv 



Total- — 
Average - 



Area Square 

Miles. 



439,120 

240,942 

204,092 

3,219,000 

191,100 

36,028 

11,373 

110,620 



4,452,275 



Population. 



2,075,245 
39,224,511 
38.218,903 
19,922,375 
16,958,178 
4,708,178 
5,520.009 
28,459,628 



148,087,027 



Percent 

age 
Catholics 



90. 

67.6 

78.5 

99. 

99. 

99. 

99. 

99. 



731.1 



91.3 



Percent- 
age 
Illiteracy 



90. 
32. 
25. 
84. 
60. 
82. 
42. 
61.94 



476.94 



59.61 



Protestant Countries. 


Area Square 
Miles. 


Population. 


Percent- 
age 
Protes- 
tants. 


Percent- 
age 
Illiterac y 


Victoria 

Sweden - -- 


87,884 
170,979 

15,892 

12,648 
211,149 

14,121 

120,832 

3,501.404 

4,134,309 


1,009,753 

4 682,769 

2,846,102 

4,336,012 

46,852,680 

1,980,259 

30,066,646 

57,928,609 


73. 

99. 

59. 

66. 

62.6 

99. 

93.3 

86.4 


.035 

.30 


Switzerland 
Netherlands 
German}' ._ _ 
Denmark . _ 
Great Britain _ 
United States- 


.30 

10.50 

1.27 

.36 

11.09 

9.40 


Total- 


149,702,830 


638.03 


33.255 


Average 






79.78 


4.156 



Appendix. 501 

This tabular statement is from data furnished 
by the Reports of the U. S. Commissioner of Edu- 
cation, the documents issued by the Bureau of 
Education, the census of 1880, and the Statesman's 
Year Book for 1887. 

The conditions of the statistics are not alike in 
all cases, but they are sufficiently so to give an ap- 
proximately correct result. These eight Roman 
Catholic countries, which I have contrasted with 
eight Protestant countries, form two groups, each 
covering an area of over 4,000.000 square miles, and 
they each contain about 150,000,000 people. In one 
group the Romanists show an average percentage 
of 91.3 ; in the other group, the Protestants show 
an average percentage of 79.78. Each religion is 
respectively dominant in its own group. But right 
here similarity ceases. While the average per- 
centage of illiteracy in the Roman Catholic group 
is 59.61, or over half the population, the average 
percentage of illiteracy in the Protestant group 
is only 4.156. In other words, illiteracy in the 
Roman Catholic group, is 14.343 times greater than 
in the Protestant group. 

A religious system which turns out or tolerates, 
as you please, an average of sixty illiterates out of 
every one hundred inhabitants of the countries it 
controls, we wish to have no hand or voice in our 
public education. We must reject any interference 
from a system which produces on the average 
nearly fifteen times as many ignorant adults as 
are found in Protestant countries. — William 
Wheeler. 

11. — Accused of Impersonating a Priest. 

About 10 A. m., September 24, 1891, Messrs. 
Chas. Wagner and J. W. dinger called at my res- 
idence in Denver, and requested me to unite in 
marriagfe Mr. Wagner and Miss Estefena Miera. I 



502 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

stated that I would, providing- there were no impedi- 
ments, to which he replied that he was a divorced 
man and thereupon produced a legal document of 
divorce and a letter of commendation from the 
Governor of New Mexico. He also explained that 
Miss Miera was a Spaniard, and had been a Cath- 
olic all her life, and that the priest would not 
marry them because he was a divorced man and 
would not pledg-e himself to rear his children in 
their faith. After being- assured that he was scrip- 
turally and leg-ally divorced I promised to meet 
them in the parlors of the American Hotel at 7:30 
p. m. to perform the ceremony. At the hour ap- 
pointed I was met at the hotel by Mr. Wag-ner, who 
requested me to accompany him to the room of Miss 
Miera, and to explain to her that I was a Protes- 
tant minister, which I immediately did. We then 
repaired to the parlor, and in the presence of three 
witnesses, Mr. and Mrs. F. H. Smith and J. W. 
Oling-er, I united them in marriage. On leaving- 
the hotel I remarked that the bride and her mother 
were so imbued with Roman Catholic doctrines and 
customs that the bride addressed me as Father 
Brandt, and that the mother made a cross in the 
midst of the ceremony. It appears that on the re- 
turn of bride and groom to Santa Fe, she was ques- 
tioned as to who married them, to which she inno- 
cently replied, "Father Brandt." One of the priests 
of Santa Fe addressed a letter to a priest in Denver, 
making- inquiries as to who was Father Brandt. A 
portion of this communication was handed to the 
papers ; a reporter called upon me, to whom I re- 
lated the whole circumstance. My report was not 
published, but an alleg-ed interview was printed in 
which it was made to appear that deception was 
practiced. Lengthy articles appeared in several of 
the daily papers g-iving- the opinions of priests and 
exag-g-erated street reports. An Associated Press 



Appendix. 503 

dispatch of the same import was scattered broad- 
cast over the country. I thought at first that I 
would make no reply, but on being* advised by 
friends to do so, I secured statements and affidavits 
from the witnesses of the contract, as well as from 
the parties married. Only one of the papers pub- 
lished my reply. The others did nothing- to coun- 
teract the false statements which they had given to 
their readers. The following- are some of the 
statements that I received : 

Santa Fe, New Mexico, Oct. 18, 1891 
To whom it may concern : 

This is to certify that when I asked Mr. John L. 
Brandt to marry me to Miss Estefena Miera, that I 
did not request him to change his g-arments, or 
his ceremony, or to impersonate a priest, or to de- 
ceive any one, for we had no occasion to practice 
deception. When he came to marry us he said 
nothing-, and did nothing-, to impersonate a priest, 
but used a Protestant ceremon}^, gave us a Protes- 
tant certificate, and Miss Miera knew she was 
being married by a Protestant minister. 

Yours respectfully, 

Chas. Wagner. 

Sante Fe, New Mexico, Oct. 18, 1891. 
Mr. John L. Brandt : 

Dear Sir : This is to certify that I knew I was 
married by you, and I knew that you were a Protes- 
tant minister. Mrs. Chas. Wagner. 

Denver, Col., Oct. 17, 1891. 
To whom it may concern : 

This is to certify that we were witnesses to the 
marriage of Mr. Chas. Wagner to Miss Estefena 
Miera, and we do hereby affirm that Mr. John L. 
Brandt used a Protestant marriage ceremony, that 
he wore a Prince Albert coat, that he made no 



504 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

crosses or signs, and neither said nor did anything- 
to deceive anyone. We were present during- the 
whole proceedings, and consider his actions as 
becoming- a g-entleman and a Christian minister. 

F. H. Smith. 

Verna Smith. 

Denver, Col., Oct. 17, 1891. 
To whom it may concern : 

This is to certify that I was present when Mr. 
Charles Wag-ner requested Mr. John L. Brandt to 
unite him in marriag-e to Miss Estefena Miera, and 
I do hereby swear that Mr. Wagner did neither ask 
Mr. Brandt to chang-e his wearing- apparel, nor his 
marriag-e ceremony, nor to impersonate a priest, 
nor to deceive Miss nor Mrs. Miera ; furthermore, 
I was present at the marriag-e, and I do most un- 
equivocally affirm that Mr. Brandt wore a Prince 
Albert coat — the same that he wears every Sunday 
in the pulpit — that he did not in any way imper- 
sonate a priest ; but to the contrary, he used a 
Protestant marriag-e ceremony, and did nothing- in 
word or action to deceive anyone. I know that the 
papers and priests are misrepresenting- and tying 
about the whole affair. J. W. Olinger. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this seven- 
teenth day of October, 1891. 

Fred. R. Berbower. 

Denver, Col., Oct. 18, 1891. 
To whom it may concern : 

We, the officers of the Hig-hland Christianl 
Church, after having- investig-ated the charges pre- 
ferred ag-ainst our pastor by certain priests and 
papers, and after having- heard from Mr. Brandt a 
full and frank statement of the part that he per- 
formed in the Wag-ner-Miera marriag-e, and after 
having examined the affidavits and statements 



Appendix. 505 

made by the several witnesses to the contract and 
ceremony, do hereby assert our belief that Mr. 
Brandt is innocent of any conspiracy to or practice 
of deception ; and furthermore, it is our opin- 
ion that he is receiving- a cruel and uncalled-for 
persecution from powers vast in extent and mig-hty 
in influence, whose fallacies he has been exposing - , 
whose sins he has been denouncing, and whose 
practices he has been showing- to be injurious to 
public morals and perilous to our free institutions ; 
and further, it is our intention to protect him in 
this unjust persecution, to encourag-e him in his 
ministry, and to hold up his hands in the future as 
we have done in the past. 

C. I. Hays, L. B. Shelton, 

T. A. Woolen, S. A. Gosney, 

H. H. Gillow, G. G. Barriger, 

E. K. Shepherd, M. C. Jackson, 

H. M. Chamberein, W. G. Trimbee, 

William Davis, N. T. Davis, 

I. C. Crose, L. Secor, 

W. H. Smith, F. A. Campbell, 

P. J. Murphy, Members Official Board. 

Now, the above statements and affidavits are 
from all the parties privy to the contract, and I 
challenge the combined Catholic world to secure a 
statement from one of the parties to the contrary. 

It may be asked why did the priests and papers 
g-ive these false reports such a vigorous circulation? 
I had been preaching- to larg-e congreg-ations, a 
series of sermons on False Doctrines, Popular Evils, 
etc. These discourses were copyrig-hted, and pub- 
lished in full in The Rocky Mountain News. They 
broug-ht against me the Roman Catholics, g-amblers, 
saloon-keepers, corrupt politicians, etc. I was pres- 
ident of the Pastors' Association of Denver, and 
supported the citizens' ticket ; the priests had 



506 America or Rome: Chrtst or the Popri 

attacked our public schools, and I had answered 
them ; nine Catholics had united with the church 
of which I was the pastor, and my predecessor had 
formerly been a Catholic; I had united in marriag-e 
a Catholic lady of great wealth to a Protestant 
man. They were watching- for an opportunity to 
slander me, and they caug-ht at this straw. My 
life was threatened, and on Sunday nig-hts I was 
accompanied to and from the church by officers. 
My enemies tried to crush my influence, and circu- 
lated false reports to accomplish this end. 

I remained in Denver six months after the affair 
happened, and continued president of the Pastors' 
Association of Denver and pastor of the North Side 
Christian Church till my departure, which was 
necessitated by the ill-health of Mrs. Brandt. On 
leaving- Denver, six different sets of resolutions of 
appreciation and respect were given to me without 
my solicitation. Two of them are here appended : 

At a meeting- of the Pastors' Association of Den- 
ver, Colorado, held March 21, 1892, the following- 
preamble and resolution was unanimously adopted : 

Whereas, Rev. John L. Brandt, Moderator of 
the Pastors' Association of Denver, Col., is about 
to leave us for another field of labor : be it 

Resolved, That we accept his resignation with 
regret, and express our appreciation of his relation- 
ship with us, and wish him a hearty God-speed in 
his departure from us and in his future labors. 

W. W. Morton, Moderator. 
L,. F. Moore, Clerk. 

May 2, 1892. 

Whereas, Our pastor, John L. Brandt, has been 
compelled to resign his pastorate on account of the 
illness of his wife : be it 

Resolved, That we unanimously regret his depar- 
ture from our midst, in that we lose the services 
of a valuable minister of the Word ; the aid and 



Appendix. 507 

counsel of a man that is fearless in the discharge 
of his duty ; the sympathy and cheer of a brother 
that possesses a tender heart and hopeful disposi- 
tion ; and be it further 

Resolved, That our prayers ascend to Him who is 
able to do all thing's, that Brother Brandt may be 
kept in all the ways of rig-hteousness, and that his 
•labors may yield abundant fruit for the Master. 

T. B. Bird and C. I. Hays, Elders of the Church. 
Mrs. Frances Gibson, Pres. Ladies' Aid Society. 
F. A. Campbell, Pres. Y. P. S. O. E. 

Rome has told many falsehoods about me, but 
this is the only one that I have ever refuted. 

Moral : Rome circulates falsehoods. Roman 
Catholic newspapers are unfair and unjust. Prot- 
estants should never subscribe or contribute to the 
support of newspapers edited or controlled by Ro- 
manists. Jno. L. Brandt. 

12. — The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore 
on the New System oe Primary and Paro- 
chial Schools. 

The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, whose 
decrees were revised by Leo XIII., September, 1885, 
has surpassed all preceding- Councils on American 
soil in the number, importance, and cogency of its 
reg-ulations on the subject of education, enjoined as 
the law to be strictly followed by pastors, teachers 
and people. 

Upwards of fifty of the one hundred and eig-hty- 
two pag-es of the body of the volume are taken up 
almost exclusively with all grades of schools, pro- 
ceeding" from the Elementary, throug-h the Inter- 
mediate schools, colleges, and academies, to the 
11 Catholic University of America." 

At the end of Chapter I., Title VI., the following- 



508 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

decrees are set down as the fundamental rules gov- 
erning- the whole educational legislation : 

"We. determine and decree : 

"I. That hard by every church, where it does 
not already exist, a parochial school is to be erected 
within two years from the promulgation of this 
Council (January 6th, Feast of Epiphany, 1886) and 
to be kept up in the future, unless the Bishop see fit 
to grant a further delay on account of more than 
ordinary grave difficulties to be overcome in its 
establishment. 

"II. That a priest, who, within the aforesaid 
time, hinders, by serious negligence, the building 
and maintenance of a school, or does not regard 
the repeated admonitions of the Bishop, deserves 
removal from that Church. 

''III. That the mission (missionem) or parish 
neglecting to aid the priest in the erection and sup- 
port of a school, so that on account of this supine 
negligence the same cannot exist, is to be repri- 
manded by the Bishop, and by every prudent and 
efficient means urged to supply the necessary helps 
(subsida). 

* ' IV. That all Catholic parents are bound to send 
their children to parochial schools, unless they pro- 
vide sufficiently and fully for their Christian educa- 
tion at home or at other Catholic schools. They may, 
however, be permitted for a good reason, approved 
by the Bishop, and using meanwhile the necessary 
precautions and remedies, to send them to other 
schools. But it is left to the judgment of the Ordi- 
nary to decide what is a Catholic school." 

Ways and Means of Promoting Parochial 
Schools. 

"If on the one side, we most strictly enjoin on 
the consciences of priests, the faithful, and espe- 
cially of Catholic parents, the observance of the 



Appendix. 509 

above written Decrees ; on the other we reg-ard it 
our bounden duty as Bishops, to labor with all out 
streng-th in providing" Catholic parents with nor 
only nominal, but actually g-ood and efficient schools, 
which, 'shall be nowise inferior to the public 
schools,' as the Instruction of the Sacred Congre- 
gation directs. We, therefore, shall propose and 
enjoin some reg-ulations by which parochial schools 
may be brought up to the standard of usefulness 
and perfection demanded by the honor of the 
Church and the eternal and temporal welfare of the 
children, and merited by the generous devotion of 
the parents. 

"I. As to priests: We decree that candidates for 
the priesthood be taug-ht in the seminaries that 
one of their principal future duties, especially now- 
adays, relates to the Christian education of the 
young-; and that it is simply impossible to fulfill 
this duty without parochial or other truly Catholic 
schools. 

"Therefore in the study of Psychology, the 
Normal Course, and Pastoral Theology, let special 
stress be laid upon the matter of education. The 
students must also learn the method of explaining- 
Catechism and Bible History in a clear and solid 
manner. . . . 

" Let priests love their schools ' as the apple of 
their eye,' frequently visit and inspect them, or 
some department of them, at least once a week, 
watching* over the children's morals, and spurring- 
on their dilig-ence by proper enticements. Let 
them teach Catechism and Bible History themselves, 
or have them rig-htly taug-ht by the relig-ious in 
charg-e. 

"Take particular notice of their other studies; 
and by public examinations once or twice a year, 
bring- their schools before the eyes of the people 
and commend them to their patronag-e. Especial 



510 America or Rome: Christ or the 1*opE. 

care must be taken that all text-books be written 
(or edited) by Catholic authors. . . The priests' 
promotion to an irremovable rectorate or other dig- 
nity will depend upon the care of their schools." 

" II. As to our faithful people, we exhort and com-, 
mand them to be well instructed that they may 
become accustomed to regard their parochial schools 
as an essential adjunct of the parish, without which 
the future existence of the congregation will be 
imperiled. 

" Let them be clearly and earnestly taught that 
the school is nowise a matter of choice with the 
priest, to prove his overflowing zeal or adopted to 
fill up his leisure time pleasantly and honorably. 
It is a duty and a burden imposed upon the priest 
by the Church, to be religiously borne by him — but 
not without the aid of his people. Nor with less 
zeal and prudence is the erroneous opinion to be 
uprooted from the minds of the laity, viz., that the 
solicitude for the school is to be confined to that 
portion of the congregation actually and directly 
making use of it for their children. It must be 
plainly demonstrated that the profits and blessings 
accruing from the preservation of faith and morals 
in parochial schools redound to the benefit of the 
whole community. 

"Whence it shall come to pass that the people 
of the parish will prize and cherish their school, 
next to their church, as the preserver of faith and 
good morals and faithful mother of children who 
shall be a joy and consolation to all. 

"The laity should give the schools fitting and 
generous support, by uniting their efforts to enable 
each parish to pay the current expenses for educa- 
tion. The faithful must be admonished by pasto- 
ral letters, sermons and even in private conversa- 
tions about the grievous neglect of their duty if 
they fail in anything to provide for Catholic 



Appendix. 511 

schools. In this matter those especially need 
urging" who possess more wealth and popular influ- 
ence. 

" Prompt and cheerful payment of the small 
monthly pension charged for each scholar ought to 
be made by all who can afford it. 

"Neither ought the other parishioners refuse to 
increase the revenues of the Church to the extent 
necessary to meet the new expenses. All, whether 
parents, heads of families, or young people earning 
wages, ought to become members of a Society for 
the Promotion of Schools. This Association, to be 
recommended to all, and already introduced into 
many localities, with the special blessing of the 
Sovereign Pontiff, has for its object to collect small 
but regular contributions designed to make the 
schools, if not altogether, at least partially, free 
schools." — "Judges of Faith," page 134. 

13. — Why thk Parochial School Should have 
no Abiding Place in the United States. 

The parochial school has been repudiated by its 
former friends. Again call the roll of the nations 
of Europe. Ital} T — Established common schools in 
1860 ; attendance was made compulsory in 1877. 
France — Education was made free, compulsory, and 
non-religious in 1882. England — Parochial schools 
were found wanting, and illiteracy on the increase ; 
common schools were established in 1870. Germany 
— The leading nation of Europe is the leader in 
common schools. The Netherlands — The same 
answer. Norway — Free, compulsory, non-religious, 
common schools. Switzerland— The same. 

I do not fear being disputed when I sa}% quoting 
from so sober an authority as the Encyclopedia 
Britannica, " that in all Europe education is pass- 
ing from the control of the clergy into the hands 



512 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

of the state ; is becoming- more secular and less 
sectarian." (Vol. VIII., page 712). Neither is it 
a religious question. Roman Catholic Italy in 
the south, Protestant Sweden in the north, are 
alike moving- to establish public schools, in which 
the teacher shall only answer to the state and the 
instruction only be secular. Do we want to put on 
the cast-off garments of Europe ? 

What do Mexico, Central America, and South 
America think of the parochial school ? I hold in 
my hand a book published in 1888, entitled, "The 
Capitals of South America," by William E. Curtis, 
appointed in 1885 by President Arthur as Secretary 
of the Spanish-American Commission. He had 
exceptional advantages to ascertain the facts, and 
is a fair writer. Let Mexico speak. Parochial 
schools have been prohibited. Free public schools 
have been established. Whoever sends a child to a 
parochial school is fined (page 4). Let the repub- 
lics of Central America speak : Guatemala — Chil- 
dren between the ages of 8 and 14 are required to 
attend the public schools (page 84). San Salvador 
— Education is free and compulsory, and under 
state control (page 178). Costa Rica — Education 
under state control and is compulsory (page 218) ; 
whoever sends a child to a parochial school is sub- 
ject to a heavy fine. 

Let the republics of South America, with their 
50,000,000 of people, speak. Remember that until 
twenty years ago the education of the children was 
in parochial schools under the control of theclerg3\ 
Argentine Republic — Free public schools under 
state control and a compuisor} 7 law, closely modeled 
after the system of the State of Michigan (page 
557). Chili — Public, non-sectarian schools ; who- 
ever sends a child to a parochial school is fined 
(page 494). Uruguay — Parochial schools have been 
closed, and free public schools have been estab- 



Appendix. 513 

lished (page 612). Venezuela — Schools are sup- 
ported by the government (page 270). Brazil — The 
same (page 678). So on through the list, every one 
of them repudiating the parochial school and estab- 
lishing free public schools, until we reach Ecuador. 
Ecuador is the only one of the South American 
republics that has not struggled to take education 
out of the hands of the clergy and destroy the 
parochial school. And what of Ecuador? There 
is not a railroad nor a stage-coach in the entire 
country. Laborers get from two to ten dollars a 
month. With a million inhabitants, there are only 
forty-seven post-offices. Ecuador, by nature one 
of the richest of the republics, yet sitting in igno- 
rance, is the only one holding to the old system of 
the parochial school (page 306). 

The nations of South America send this message 
to the United States : "We have tried the parochial 
school, but it has been found wanting. The educa- 
tion of our children has for ages been intrusted to 
the Church, but our children grew up in ignorance. 
If education is to be universal and broad, it must 
be placed in the hands of the state." Central 
America and Europe send the same message. The 
same message comes from Protestant Germany, 
Sweden, and England, and from Catholic Italy and 
France, Chili and Brazil. In South America, 
Catholicism is the state religion ; yet they say em- 
phatically, the Church is not able, through its 
parochial schools, to teach the people. They have, 
therefore, placed the work in the hands of the 
state. Now the parochial school knocks at our 
door and claims the right to teach our children. 
Shall we dismiss a school system which the nations 
of the earth are examining and copying* and bor- 
rowing, and put in its place a system that nearly 
all have turned off ? — Br. Sydney Strong. 

No ! A thousand times no ! 



514 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

14. — Rome's Secret Societies. 

In order to more easily drill the Roman Catholics 
and prepare them for the irrepressible struggle, the 
Jesuits have organized them into a great number 
of secret societies, the principal of which are : 
Ancient Order of Hibernians, Irish-American So- 
ciety, Knights of St. Patrick, St. Patrick's Cadets, 
St. Patrick Mutual Alliance, Apostles of Liberty, 
Benevolent Sons of the Emerald Isle, Knights of 
St. Peter, Knights of the Red Branch, Knights of 
the Columskill, The Sacred Heart, etc., etc. Al- 
most all of these secret associations are military 
ones. The}^ have their headquarters at San Fran- 
cisco, but their rank and file are scattered all over 
the United States. They number 700,000 soldiers, 
who under the name of United States Volunteer 
Militia, are officered by some of the most skillful 
generals and officers of this republic. — Father Ghin- 
iquy, "Fifty Years in Rome." 

15. — Bishop's Oath 

In the consecration of Bishop Burke, at Albany, 
N. Y., July 1st, 1894, the following oath was taken, 
and it was printed in the Albany Evening Journal of 
July 2 : 

"I, Thomas Martin Aloysius Burke, elected to 
the church of Albany, from this hour henceforward 
will be obedient to blessed Peter the apostle, and 
to the holy Roman Church, and to our holy father, 
Pope Leo XIII., and to his successors canonically 
elected. I will assist them to retain and defend 
the Roman papacy without detriment to my order. 
I shall take care to preserve, to defend, increase, 
and promote the rights, honors, privileges and au- 
thority of the holy Roman Church, of our lord the 
Pope and of his aforesaid successors. I shall ob- 
serve with all my strength, and shall cause to be 



Appendix. 

observed by others, the rules of the holy fathers, 
the apostolic decrees, ordinances or dispositions, 
reservations, provisions and mandates. I shall 
come when called to a synod, unless prevented by 
a canonical impediment. I shall make personally 
the visit ad limina apostolorum every ten years, and 
I shall render to our holy father, Pope Leo XIII., 
and to his aforesaid successors, an account of my 
whole pastoral office, and of all things pertaining 
in any manner whatsoever to the state of my 
church, to the discipline of the clergy and the 
people, and finally to the salvation of the souls 
which are entrusted to me ; and in turn I shall re- 
ceive humbly the apostolic mandates and execute 
them as diligently as possible. But if I shall be 
detained by legitimate impediment, I shall fulfill 
all the aforesaid thing-s through a desig-nated dele- 
gate having- a special mandate for this purpose, a 
priest of my diocese, or throug-h some other secular 
priest of known probity and relig-ion, fully informed 
concerning- the above-named thing's. I shall not 
sell, nor give, nor mortgage the possessions belong- 
ing- to my mensa, nor shall I enfeoff them anew or 
alienate them in any manner, even with the con- 
sent of the chapter of my church, without consult- 
ing- the Roman pontiff. And if throug-h me any 
such alienation shall occur, I wish, by the very 
fact, to incur the punishments contained in the 
constitution published concerning- the matter. 

"The consecrator, holding- in his lap the books 
of the gospels, received the above oath from Bishop- 
elect Burke, who ended by saying-, as he touched 
with both hands the g-ospels : 

"'So help me God and these holy g-ospels of 
God.'" 

If that is not swearing allegiance to a foreign 
potentate, what is? 



INDEX. 



Page 
Adoration of the Host, --_____ 494 

Alliance, Christian _ _ _• _ _ • _ 218 

American News Company, ______ 294 

Angels, Worship of ______ 187 

Antiquity opposed to Creature Worship, _ 205 

Antiquity opposed to Withholding the Cup, _ _ 127 
Apostles and Evangelists were Married, 98 

Apostolate of the Press, ______ 283 

Assumption, Festival of ______ 190 

Austria, Romanism in -____. 498 

Auricular Confession, ______ 48, 101 

Babylon, --_______ 238 

Ballot-box, _ _._ _ _ _ _ _ _428 

Baltimore Catholic Congress, _____ 36 

Bible, _______ 380, 229, 231, 221 

Binding and Loosing, _ _____ 35 

Bishop's Qualification, ___..___ 99 
Bishop's Oath, ________ 514 

Burning Protestant Bibles, _ _ _ _ . 224 

Bull of Excommunication, ______ 221 

Cannibalism and Transubstantiation, _ _ _ _ 116 

Canon Law of Papacy, ______ 23 

Catechism, Keenan's, _ - - _ _ _ 27, 44, 49 
Catechism, Deharbe's, 20, 50, 129, 171 

Catechism taught in Schools, _____ 332, 334 

Catholic first, Citizen next, _ _ _ _ -28, 261 

Catholics, A Word to _ _ _ _ _ _ -205 

Catholic Husbands, _______ 70 

Catholic Newspapers, _______ 286 

Catholic's Rnle of Faith, ______ 210 

Catholic Women, ________ 69 

Catholic Truth Societv, ______ 284 

Celibacy of the Priesthood, _ _ _ __ 78 to 102 

Christ the Head of the Church, _ 46,249 

Christ opposed to the Mass, - 131 

Christ opposed to Transubstantiation, _ _ _ - 210 

(516) 



Index. 517 

Christ our Leader, --_____ 250 

Christ our Mediator, --_____ 250 

Church and Infallibility, --____ 20 

Church and State, ______ 382 387 417 

Coligny Murdered, _ _ _ _ . _ 472 

Confession of Peter, ------- 34 

Confession, Auricular, _ _ _ _ _ 48 to 101 

Conflict, The Next ______ 372, 377, 383 

Confraternities and Indulgences, - _ _ _ 154. 

Congress, Baltimore Catholic, - _ . _ 26 

Congress, Columbian, --_____5 

Congress, German Catholic, ______ 26 

Conquering the Enemy, _ _ „ _ _ _ 411 
Conscience, Liberty of _ _ _ _ _ -416 

Convent Converts, _______ 435 

Convent, Escape from _-_-___ 450 
Convent, Experience in _____ 442 

Convent, First Night in - . 448 

Convent Life Illustrated, _ _ _- _ _ 432 

Convent, Taking the Veil, ______ 446 

Consecrated Host, _ _ _ _ . . _ 120 

Concubinage, -_-_____ 83 

Cooperation, The Power of 426 

Council of Baltimore, _______ 418 

Councils of the Church, --____ 4L 

Council of Constance, _______ 126 

Council of Constantinople, ______ 174 

Council of E'iberis, _ _ _ ._ _ _ _ 174 

Council of Florence,, _ _ _ _ _ . _ 140 

Cjuncil, Lateran, ___._.__ _ 52, 109 
Council of Nice, ______ 170, 174, 209 

Council of Toledo, ________ 78 

Council of Tolosa, _______ 226 

Council of Trent, _ 19, 20. 50, 78, 81, 95, 104, 109, 126, 130, 

136, 141, 170, 175, 183, 211, 227. 
Council, Vatican, _ 21, 44 

Courage of God's People, __.-__'_ 77 

Cranmer's Martyrdom, _ _ 469 

Creeds of the Church, -._____ 41 

Creed of Pope Pius, -_•____ 32, 210 

Crime, _______ 269, 270, 271 

Cup withheld from Laity, ______ 126 

Denver, Colorado, _ _ 293, 296 

Devotion of the Scapulars, ____.._ 496 

Doctrines of Rome, _ _ 108 

Domesticism, ______ ~ __ 82 

Discrimination of Catholic Papers, _ _ _ 285 

Eucharist, __--__-__ 104 



518 Index. 

Page. 
England and the Press, ______ 268 

Ecuador, ___ _ _ _ _ 513 

Extreme Unction, _ _ _ _ _ 495 

France and Romanism, _ 266, 490, 497 

Germany and Nunneries, ______ 86 

Gemany Banished the Jesuits, _ _ 499 

German Catholic Congress, _ 26 

Gibbons Criticised, - _ _ _ _ 14, 212 

God Blasphemed, _______ 64 

Health and Celibacy, _______ 92 

Heretical Popes, -__-___- 42 
Heretics, - . . _______ 377, 46 L 

History against Rome, _ _ _ . _ 325 

Histories in Public Schools, _ _ . _ _ 325, 326, 327 
Husbands, Catholic, _______ 70 

Illiteracy, ______ 265, 268, 332, 499 

Images, _ ___.___._ 173 

Image- Worship, _______ 179, 181 

Immaculate Conception, _..„___ 189 

Impersonating a Priest, _ _ 501 

Immorality of the Throne, _ _ - _ _ 394 

Immense Wealth of Rome, ______ 156 

Immorality, Public, _ _ _ _ _ _ ' _ 189 

Increase in Catholic Families, _____ 435 

Indulgences, - _ _ _ _ _ _ 135 to 156, 184 

Indianapolis and Nunneries, _____ 88 

Infanticide, - - - - _ __ _ -87 

Infallibility of the Pope, 17 to 42, 486 

Inquisition, _________ 492 

Irish and Ireland, _ _ 266, 269, 270, 489 

Italy, ________ 267, 511 

Jesuits Banished from Germany, _ 499 

Jesuits, Classes in Journalism, _____ 283 

Jesuits, Doctrines of _ _ _ _ - - 106 

Jesuits, _ _ _ _ 377, 386, 392, 403, 407 

Judgment, Private _ _ _ 253, 380 

Keys to the King of Heaven, __..__ 35 
Lateran Council, _ 52 

Latimer's Martyrdom, ___.__. _ 468 
Legislators, Duty, - - 102, 492 

Liberty, ________ 73, 133 

Lincoln's Prophecy, _______ 297 

Lincoln's Assassination, _ _ _ _ 450 

Litany of the Blessed Virgin, _____ 195 

Literature, Immoral _______ 56 

Literature, Exposing Rome _____ 428 

Lord's Supper, _ _ _ _ _ _ - _104 

Luther's Work, _.______- 466 



Index. 519 

Masses, -._____ 129, 130, 131, 157 

Married State, Natural ______ 92 

Marriage, Substitution for _____ 489 

Mary, Worship of 193 to 203 

Martyrs, ________ 387, 461 

Martyrs' Memorial _ _ . _ _ _ _ 474 

Methodists and Satolli, _ _ _ _ 358 

Mexico, _________ 51 2 

Miracles, _________ 496 

Mixed Marriages, - _____ 435 

Nations Subordinate to Church, _ ■ _ ' _ _ 28 

Netherlands, _______ 268,511 

Oath, Bishop's, _____ _ 514 

Oath of Naturalization, _____.. 418 

Obedience to Priests, _ _ . 386 

Oldcastle's Martyrdom, ______ 463 

Organization, the Power of 425 

Paganized Christianity, _____ 393, 408 

Papacy, the Canon Law of .____.. 23 

Papacy, Error of ____"___ 3C 

Parochial Schools, Text-Book^, _____ 476 

Parochial Schools Should be Abolished, _ 508, 511 

Pastors' Association of Denver, _____ 509 

Penance, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 135, 234, 450 

Personal Consecration, _ _ _ _ . _ 431 

Peter and the Rock, _______ 33 

Peter never claimed to be Pope, _ 37 

Peter's Primacy not mentioned in Bible, _ _ 37, 39 

Pope, Kissing his Toe, ______ 30 

Pope's Infallibility, _______ 17 

Pope, Obedience to ________ 29 

Pope's Power not denned in Bible, 40 

Pope the Antichrist, _ . 250 

Pope's Palace, ________ 248 

Pope opposed to Progress, _ _ _ ,. _ 383, 262 

Pope's Power in Prussia, _ _ _ _ _ 384 

Pope or the Constitution, ______ 396 

Pope's Titles, ______ -30 

Popes, Heretical, _______ 42 

Popes in Hell, _____..__ 43 

Popes opposed to the President, _ .. _ _ 401 

Popish Nunneries, _ _ _ - _ _ _ 448 

Primitive Fathers, _ - - - _ _ _ 42, 68 
Priest assumes God's Prerogative, _____ 64 

Priests, Number of -- _____ 71 

Priests' Drunkenness, _______ 84 

Priests' Bloated Appearance, _____ 88 

Priests Should Marry, _,__._,_._ 100 



520 Index. 

Page. 
Priest and Nun, _ .____- 450 

Protestantism and Romanism, _ 240, 2(36 

Protestantism and Scriptures, _ _ - - _ - 45 

Protestants, A Word to _ _ _ _ _ 7 ! , 206 

Protestants Supporting Romibh Institutions, _ _ 86 

Protestants Lost, _ . 241 

Protestantism for the True Church, _ . 253 

Protestantism Proscribed, _ - _ - - - 254 
Protestantism Favors Progress, _ 262 

Protestantism the Enemy of Rome, . 421 

Protestantism, The Plea of _____ 429 

Protestant Converted to Rome, _____ 435 

Protestant Rule of Faith, _ ' - _ _ _ _ 280 

Press, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 279 to 309 

Psalms, Perversion of ____._192 

Purgatory, _ .- _ . _ .. _ 135 to 166 

Public Schools and Liberty, __..__ 344 

Public Schools and Immigrants, _____ 344 

Public School Fund, _ - - - - - 368, 389 

Relics, _________ 168, 172 

Religious Liberty Denied, _ _ _ - - - 390 
Results of Withholding the Cup, - - 127 

Ridley's Martyrdom, - _ _ _ _ _ _ r 468 

Rock and Peter, ______ 33 

Rome Divided, _ 81, 95, 115, 174, 175, 215 

Rome Opposed to Protestant Bible, _ 316 

Rome Opposed to the Christian Alliance, - - - 218 
Rome Opposed to Freedom, _____ 391 

Rome Opposed to Progress, _ 262, 383, 395 

Rome Opposed to Civil Liberty, ._ 487 

Rome Opposed to the Public Schools, _ 314, 323 

Rome Enemy to the Sovereignty of the People, - - 411 
Rome Enemy of the Freedom of Conscience, - - 417 

Rome Enemy of the Constitution, _ _ - - 411 
Rome Enemy of the Oath of Naturalization, _ _ 418 

Rome Enemy of Religious Liberty, ■ _ • 417, 487 

Rome Proscribes the Use of the Bible, _ 226 

Rome and the Free Press, __..__ 310, 418 
Rome's Attack on Our Public Schools, _ - 317 to 382 

Rome's Influence on the Nations, - 269, 270, 345, 489 

Rome Fears Intelligence, .__._.-- 341, 382 

Rome the Apostate Church, _ , _ - 253 

Romanism As It Is, _ .. _ _ _ - - 404 
Roman Clergy, .._____. _ 406 

Romanism and the Bible, ______ 208 

" Crime, _______ 91 

" " Immigration, _____ 434 

" in the United States, .. _ _ .432 



Index. 521 

Page. 
Romanism Intolerant, ______ 4H7 

" and Paganism, ______ 390 

" " Protestantism, _ _ 45, 240, 273, 347, 398 

Saints and Angels, _______ 182 

Salvation, None out of Rome, _____ 243 

Satisfaction, _ _ • _ _ _ _ _ _ 137, 139 

Scapular of the Virgin, _ _ _ _ _ _ 195 

Scotland, -_..______ 267 

Satolli and His Mission, _____ 351 to 371 

Schools, Public, _ _ _ _ _ _ -314 

Scribner's Monthly Spotted, - _ _ _ _ 3i0 

Scriptures the Infallible Guide, _ _ _ 45 

used, _ _ _ _ ... . .18, 32, 77 

" and Romanism, ______ 208 

'• Mistranslated, ______ 234 

" Opposed to Celibacy, _ _ _ _ 97 

Opposed to the Confessional, _ _ _ 65 

" " Mass, _ 132 

" " " Image- Worship, _ _ _ 179 

" " " Purgatory, .. 162, 164 

" " " Transubstan'iation, _ _ 109 

" " " Communion of One Kind, _ _ 127 

" " " Satisfaction, 139 

" " " the Worship of Mary, _ 202 

Secret Orders of Rome, - - 62,514 

Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, _ _ _ _ 211 

Sodality of the Holy Angels, _____ 185 

Spain, - _.._____ 267, 491 

Spanish Catholics in Colorado, _ 378 

Science Opposed to Trnnsubstantiation, _ 129 

Sherman's Religious Views, - 380, 401 

St. Peter's, ___ _____154 

St. Bartholomew, _ . 472 

Stars and Stripe9, _____ . 374 

Sweden, ________ 268 

Syllabus of Errors, _______ 24 

Tammany Ring, _ _ _ _ 383 

Text- Books in Parochial Schools, _____ 476 

Temporal Power and Infallibility, _ 22 

Testimonials, _________ 506 

Theologies of Rome, _ _ _ _ _ 56, 62, 63 

Third Plenary Council of Baltimore on Public Schools, - 507 
Toledo, Ohio, _ ----- 297 

Tradition and Infallibility, _ _ _ _ .. 41 

Tradition, _______ 211, 215, 381 

Trent, see Council of. 

Trent Catechism, ________ 141 



522 America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 

Page. 
Transubstantiation, ______ 104 to 124 

Translators condemned, _ _ _ - - - -221 

United Efforts of Christians, _____ 425 

United States, ________ .268 

United States and Popery, _ _ _ - _ _ 29 

Vatican, . _ - _ _ _ _ _ _ -248 

Vatican Council, -_ _ _ _ - -21, 44 

Vice of the Throne, _______ 43 

Warning Voice, ________ 400 

Washington in the Lap of Rome, .' _ - - - 278, 293 
Women, Catholic, _._'■_ _ _ _ - 59 

Women in the Vatican, _______ 100 

World's Fair Products, _ _ ._ - - -263 

Worship of Angels, __ _ _ - - -187 

Worship of Mary, _______ 187 

Worship of Saints, - _ _ _ _ - - - 182 

Worship of, Various Degrees, _____ 168 

Wycliffe, _ ________ 461 

Y. M. C. A. and the Bible, ____-._ 225 



AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. 



Aberroes, 117. 

Adams, J. Q., 284. 

Allen, 289, 336. 

Albany Evening Journal, 514. 

Ambrose, 182. 

Ambrosius, 98. 

Anderson, 326. 

Antonius, 193. 

Atto, 83. 

Aquinas, 149, 176, 423. 

Azorius, 176. 

Bacon, Leonard, 390. 

Baddelley, 246. 

Bebe, 143. 

Beecher, 381. 

Bellarmine, 141, 143, 176. 

Bernard, 95. 

Biel, 118, 193. 

Bismarck, 96, 384. 

Blaine, 387. 

Blair, 387. 

Bonaventura, 141, 185, 192. 

Bonaparte, 414. 

Book of the Confraternity, 497. 

" " Scapula, 194." 
Boston Citizen, 284, 292. 

" Pilot, 413, 415. 
Breviary, 117, 182, 190. 
Brown, 334. 

Brownson, 4, 245, 414, 421, 439. 
Bruno, 171, 212. 
Bunyan, 96. 
Burke, 96. 
Burton, 96. 
Cabrera, 170. 
Campbell, Alex., 405 
Castelar. 383. 
Carlyle, '467. 



Caracciolo, Henrietta, 86. 
Catholic Columbian 315. 

" Herald, 302. 
Catholics of the 19th Century, 

281. 
Catholic Quarterly Review, 315. 

" Review, 266, 309, 341. 

" Telegraph (Cin.), 315. 

" Time?, 282, 292. 

" Truth Society, 282. 

" Weekly, 413. 

" Worlds 257, 259, 260, 
329, 342, 416, 417, 422, 435. 
Chicago Tablet, 323. 
Chiniquy, 59, 80, 83, 117, 493. 
Choate, Rufus, 321. 
Christian Advocate, 353. 
Chrysostom, 128. 
Cicero, 117. 
Census Bulletin, 269. 
Clement, 94. 
Coffin, 380. 
Coleridge, 96. 

Contemporary Review, 229. 
Collette, 233. 
Cook, Joseph, 399. 
Corrigan, 302. 
Cosgrove, 266. 
Cotton, 95. 
Cox, Bishop, 312. 
Crotus, 117. 
Cusack, M. S., 56, 195. 
Curtis, 512. 

Cyril of Jerusalem, 115, 209. 
Cyprian, 82. 

Daily Traveler, Boston, 302. 
Damien, 83, 143, 144. 
Dens, 119, 143, 148, 171, 177, 227 



(523) 



524 



America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 



Deharbe, 20, 105, 129, 135, 140, 

146, 150, 171, 183, 191, 215, 

237, 243, 495. 
Dick, 381. 
Dixon, 127, 381. 
Douay, 142, 233. 
Dowling, 391. 
Draper, J. W., 410. 
Dunne, 316, 343. 
Durant, 279. 
Eaton, Chas., 311. 
Edgar, 80, 119, 122. 
Elder, Archbishop, 3C6. 
Encyclopedia Brit., 21, 32, 470. 
" of Education, 346. 

Epiphanius, 174. 
Errett, 275. 
Eusebius, 209. 
Fabre, Archbishop, 307. 
Faith of our Fathers, 212. 
Fallon, Joseph, 325. 
Farrar, Canon, 394. 
Feijo, 95. 

Fidelis, 4, 421, 439. 
Fifty Years in Eome, 229, 514. 
Forum, 270, 389, 438. 
Franklin, 95, 275. 
Freeman's Romish Journal, 316, 

315, 328. 
Frul, 323. 

Froude, 258, 260, 270, 386, 471. 
Fulton, 362, 417. 
Gage, 122. 
Garfield, 330, 382. 
Gattina, 378. 
Gavin, 120. 

Gibbons, 27, 177, 193, 212. 
Gibson, 381. 
Gilmour, 28, 260, 307, 316, 343, 

412. 
Gladstone, 17, 29, 36, 392. 
Glories of Mary, 199. 
Grant, 322, 330, 389 
Gregory, 27, 81. 
Gretser, 171. 
Gury, 106. 

Halstead, Murat, 384. 
Hamilton, Gail, 378. 
Harper's Monthly, 395. 



Hecker, Father, 413. 

Heine, 467. 

Hodge, 489. 

Hogan, 84, 86, 448. 

Homer, 148. 

Hugo, 333, 392, 407. 

Hughes, Archbishop, 233, 483. 

Hume, 469. 

Ignatius, Loyola, 257. 

Ignatius, , 127. 

Irish World, 341. 

Ireland, Archbishop, 4, 343, 
421, 438. 

Jerome, 82. 

Johnson, 95. 

Judges of Faith, 314, 511. 

Katzer, 260. 

Kane, 305. 

Keane, 302, 371. 

Keenan, 27, 241, 242. 

Keller, 301. 

Knox, John, 470. 

Lactantius, 181. 

LaFayette, 377. 

Lansing, 25. 

Lasserre, 229. 

Liguori, 84. 

Light on Popery, 264. 

Lincoln, Prof. H. H., 375. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 398. 
' ' Assassi n ation , 456. 

Luther, 87, 95, 155, 380. 

MacAfee, 120. 

MacDonald, 270. 

Mackenzie, 396, 420, 487. 

Macaulay, 378. 

Malone, 326. 

Manning, 5, 108, 315. 

Monk, Maria, 87, 412. 

Martin, Justin, 115. 

Markoe, 5, 284. 

Morriss, 414. 

Mattison, 435. 

M. E. Home Journal, 454. 

Meyer, 326. 

Memorial of the Captivity of Na- 
poleon, 422. 

Michelet, 491. 

Milton, 378. 



Authorities Consulted. 



525 



Milner, 19, 227. 

Mission Book, 107,183, 190,494. 

Morse, 378. 

Morton, 471. 

Mosheim's History, 408. 

Munsey's Magazine, 357. 

Mysteries of Neapolitan Con- 
vent, 85. 

Mac Arthur, 384. 

McDowell, 327. 

McGloin, 290. 

McCloskey, 264. 

Nast, 293, 294. 

New Englander, 268. 

Newton, Bishop, 394. 

Newman, 5. 

North American Review, 366. 

O'Connell, 413, 415. 

O'Gorman, Edith, 444, 446. 

Origen, 115, 181. 

Oswald, 193. 

Otho, 149. 

Paris, 143. 

Parker, Joseph, 397. 

Paul, 56, 165. 

Philadelphia Enquirer, 403. 

Plato, 148. 

Plain Talk of Protestants To- 
day, 248. 

Pontifical Romanism, 423. 

Pope Gregory XIV., 438, 193, 
217, 281. 

Pope Gregory VII., 81, 

" the Great, 142. 
149, 174. 

Pope Innocent III., 153. 

" Leo XIII., 5, 28, 220, 259, 
261, 279, 301, 316, 365,412, 413. 

Pope Leo X., 152, 154. 
■' Pius IX., 32, 88, 170, 221. 
244, 264, 316, 334, 413, 415, 
416,419. 

Pope Pius IV., 142, 183, 210, 
257, 281. 

Pope Pius VII., 216. 
" Urhan, 152, 420. 

Preston, 252, 257, 260, 413. 

Purcell, 43, 44. 



Religion and Literature, 412. 

Richardson, Miss Eliza, 5(i. 

Rothwell, 283. 

Rowland, 323. 

Sadlier's History, 198, 476,433. 

Saurin's Sermons, 404. 

Shoupe, 258. 

School Plot Unmasked, 338. 

Schaff, 377. 

Schulte, G. F., 23. 

Scott, 96. 

Second Plenary Council of Bal- 
timore, 221. 

Segur, 246. 

Seymour, 270. 

Shakespeare, 196. 

Shaw, 159, 263, 345. 

Sheridan, 275. 

Sherman, Gen., 380. 

Sherman, Col., 385. 

Shepherd of the Valley, 415. 

Smith, John Talbot, 351, 363. 

St. Louis Republican, 84, 368. 
" Observer, 497. 

Strong (Our Country), 259, 268, 
340, 383, 433, 437. 

Strong, Sydney, 513. 

St. Augustine, 115. 

Substitution for Marriage, 88. 

Sodality of the Hoi v Angels, 185. 

Tablet, 257, 343. 

Talmage, 387. 

Tenney, 378. 

Tertullian, 115. 

Tetzel, 154. 

The Weekly Register, 291. 

Theodore t, LI 5. 

Third Plenarv Council of Bal- 
timore, 300,*282, 507. 

Thompson, 393, 507. 

Thomas, Stint, 144, 170. 

Toledo Blade, 298. 

Townsend, 282, 289, 292, 377. 

Traynor, 12. 

Tribune, N. Y., 269. 

Vandeveld, 84. 

Vandyke, 119. 

Vaughan, 283. 



526 



America or Rome: Christ or the Pope. 



Variations of Popery, 494, 495. 

Vasques, 177. 

Ventura, 159. 

Virgil, 148. 

Walker, Father, 315, 323, 

Walsh, 83, 266. 

Warren, 434. 

Webster, 321, 339. 

Weniger, 260. 

Wesley, 377. 

Western Tablet, 419. 



Wheeler, 332, 501. 

White, J. G., 15, 401 

WiDston,390. 

Wiseman, 256. 

Wolff, G. D., 27, 286, 300, 309 

World, N. Y., 361. 

World Almanac, 270. 

World's C. C. Congress, 414, 

417, 419. 
Wvcliffe, 461. 



It is now 11 p. m., February 14th, 1895. I have 
been laboring" incessantly, night and day, for the 
past six months, to bring - this book to completion. 
It is much larg-er than I at first anticipated making 
it, but the calumnies and persecutions of Rome 
have been a spur to my activities, I must 
here acknowledge my indebtedness for information 
to the authorities above quoted. I am truly grate- 
ful for the words of encouragement received from 
my many friends. I also desire to make mention 
of the hearty cooperation and faithful labor of 
Mrs. Brandt. It has been a work of love for my 
country and my God. To all patriots and Chris- 
tians it is dedicated. 

The Author, 










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